On the 22nd, the Argentine Football Association announced through official channels that Argentina will hold an international A-level warm-up match with Australia on June 15 in Beijing. This means that the Chinese team will miss Argentina, Argentina, the new champion of the World Cup, home with Messi leading the way. For Chinese fans who love Argentina and Messi, this is a pity, but from the perspective of the national football team's preparation for the 2026 World Qualifiers and the 2023 Asian Cup, this may be a more realistic choice for the team. In order to achieve good preparation results, the Chinese team will focus on my training and warm-up arrangements, rather than to "accompany the heat" to become the World Cup.
Argentina was confirmed to come to China early on, but the Chinese team had other arrangements.
The news of "Qatar World Cup winner Argentina coming to China this summer" spread through various channels more than a month ago. As a matter of fact, this is an international warm-up match operated by a relevant professional company through brokering means, with an obvious commercial nature. Although the match was identified as an international A-level warm-up match because both sides are representative teams (national teams) of FIFA member associations, and the match was scheduled on an international match day in June, the new World Cup champion Argentina, which can invite Messi and other stars, came to China to participate in the match, and the organizers of the match had to pay a huge appearance fee.
From the various information released by outsiders earlier, it seems that the tournament organizers are keen to promote warm-ups between China and Argentina in June. However, just as the related hype was running rampant, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has decided that the national football team will play warm-up matches against Myanmar and Palestine in Dalian on June 16 and 20, even as the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) officially announced the China-Palestine warm-up matches a month earlier. With the CFA having to sign an agreement with the Dalian parties concerned over the matches, China's plans for the two June warm-ups are nailed on.
For national soccer team, warm-up matches against world champions mean little
From the point of view of the game's spectacle and attention, China can warm up Argentina, will naturally benefit greatly, but for the urgent need to reorganize the national football team, the reality is not very meaningful. It is understood that the reason why the Chinese team chose to warm up with the weaker Myanmar and Palestine in June is mainly because they hope to restore their confidence as soon as possible by winning, and then put into the new cycle of various matches with a good mental state. With China's current strength, apart from pleasing the fans, warming up with opponents like Argentina will only add negative value to the national soccer team's world ranking points. This is because China's next two matches are against Argentina and Palestine.
The Chinese team's recent preparation program has been implemented around the scheduled opponents.
On May 2 this year, Football Australia sent a letter to all relevant parties confirming their agreement to send a team to China for a warm-up match against Argentina. Although the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has not responded publicly to this matter, the Association has expressed through internal channels that the warm-up plan for the Chinese team has been finalized in June. If Argentina confirms to come to China to play, it may affect the attention of the national football team's two international warm-up matches in the same period to a certain extent, and the implication of this attitude is actually very clear.
In fact, the 2023 Asian Cup group draw was held around May 11, and national soccer team head coach Jankovic devised a detailed preparation plan for the Myanmar and China-Pakistan warm-ups in June. After returning to China from Qatar, he went to the Chinese Super League (CSL) tournaments in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin to scout for candidates, and his selection process was actually implemented around these two warm-ups. In addition, besides the two warm-ups in June, the national soccer team decided to hold two international A-level warm-ups in Dalian in September. If nothing else, the team will play warm-up matches against two relatively strong Asian teams in September. It is not difficult to see that the national soccer team will play on.
