The national soccer team performed well in two warm-up matches last month, successfully winning against Myanmar and Palestine. Although the strength of these two teams is average, it is a very good achievement for the national soccer team to win these two matches in the current complicated situation. Currently, the national soccer team is taking a very cautious attitude towards the choice of opponents for warm-up matches and the possible risk of losing. According to Ma Dexing, the national soccer team has rejected the invitation of the United States to play in the warm-up matches.
Madsen revealed that the U.S. Soccer Federation intended to invite the Chinese team to the U.S. for warm-up matches, but their idea was rejected by the CFA. At the end of last month, the United States also officially confirmed that Oman and Uzbekistan were the opponents for two warm-up matches on international match days in September. Considering that these two teams are very close to the level of the national soccer teams in Asia, there is a real possibility that the U.S. will invite China to participate in the warm-up matches.
The U.S.'s invitation to China for the warm-up matches may have been more about scouting Asian opponents. They are one of the organizers of the 2026 World Cup. Initially, they planned to pay for the appearance fee and the travel expenses of the Chinese team to the United States. However, the CFA decided to decline the invitation for the warm-up match from many angles.
It's really easy to understand that September is when the domestic league is at its most intense. There is a 10+ hour time difference between China and the United States. When you go there, you need jet lag. Upon returning home, the players have to return to their clubs first thing for the Chinese Super League and the Asian Championship. The warm-up matches are essentially nothing to learn from and are more out of a commercial nature. Even if the FA is really willing to let the national soccer team accept such so-called exercise opportunities, it actually has to consider the interests of the clubs.
Not long ago, the national team rejected Argentina's invitation to play and the Beijing-Argentina confrontation caused a lot of controversy. At that time, Argentina came to China to participate in a commercial match, but the Chinese team did not participate in this match, instead allowing Australia to play Argentina. Many voices have been raised against the national soccer team for doing this, and many voices believe that this is the national soccer team's concern about losing, leading to their own demotion in the FIFA rankings.
Although many voices are now attacking the national soccer team out of the so-called "national soccer team is afraid of losing" point of view, but in fact it is completely understandable. On the one hand, from a purely soccer point of view, a commercial match like the one with Argentina is essentially worthless. At that time, the national soccer team should have played well with Palestine and Myanmar, so as not to lose in the points, which is significant to maintain the ranking. On the other hand, it is true that the strength of the national soccer team is so universal that such a strong team would probably lose, and the team could not accept the loss, but such a match would have been very different from the beginning and would not have served the purpose of learning at all.
From a practical point of view, the opponents that need to be faced in order for Chinese soccer to play well at the level of the Asian Cup and the World Qualifiers are Asian teams. Myanmar and Palestine are not strong opponents in Southeast and West Asia. Although China's win against these two teams is not suspenseful, for us, at least we can learn the characteristics of the teams in these two regions through the matches of these two teams. This is the most meaningful thing.
