The national football team managed to realize the first phase of their June points-grabbing plan as they thrashed Myanmar by four goals. Prior to the match, China's national soccer team had 1,297.98 FIFA technical points, rising to 81st in the world and slipping out of Asia's top 10 to just 11th. After winning 2.41 technical points against Myanmar, the national team's total surpassed 1,300 points to move back into the world's top 80 and is currently ranked 79th. The win overtook two teams, Guinea and Honduras, both of whom recently lost in warm-up matches, causing them to drop one place in the rankings accordingly. However, the points gap between these three teams is very small, so their rankings could be adjusted again at any time.
Although the world ranking has improved by two places, the Asian ranking is still 11th because Uzbekistan is 26 points ahead, which is not a gap that can be bridged by two warm-up matches, and Uzbekistan won the warm-up as well, and in fact, the point gap has no jurisdiction, making it even more difficult for the national soccer team to get back to the top ten in Asia. However, a win in the warm-up will at least ensure that the national soccer team stays in 11th place and will not be overtaken by the teams behind them. In addition, a return to within 80 in the world rankings would be an improvement.
According to the plan, the next opponent of the Chinese national soccer team is Palestine. Despite the relatively weak ranking and strength, if we can win two consecutive matches at home, we will directly gain 4.39 technical points, which is expected to improve the world ranking. Of course, despite our obvious strength advantage, we still cannot take it lightly. Even if we draw, the national soccer team will be deducted 0.61 technical points. A blowout loss would result in a loss of 5.61 technical points and a drop in the rankings beyond the 80th place, so Jankovic's coaching staff will have to go all out.
Regarding the Asian rankings, the chance for the national soccer team to turn things around could be in the Asian Cup, which is one of the highest level tournaments in Asia, where victories will result in higher points. Once the group advances to the knockout rounds, the national soccer team's points will rise dramatically, and hopes of returning to the top 10 in Asia will increase dramatically. Of course, there are two sides to this. If it performs poorly, the points will plummet and the ranking will drop further. From the standpoint of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), it is likely that the group draw for the World Cup qualifiers will use the Asian rankings as a reference standard, so the national soccer team needs to prepare well in advance.
