Recently, China's national soccer team officially finalized its opponent for the international warm-up match in June, when the national soccer team will host Palestine, which is ranked 15th in Asia. Palestine is also a strong team for the current national soccer team, and the two teams may meet in the group stage of the Asian Cup, so this is a good warm-up target.
However, with the national soccer team's decision to play a warm-up match against Palestine, it also means that the CFA has refused to consider the possibility of participating in the Central Asian Cup this June. This year's Central Asian Cup was particularly notable because, in addition to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and other Central Asian teams, Iran and Russia were invited to participate in the tournament, with the intention of issuing "wild cards" to Thailand and China. When the news first broke, some fans were looking forward to the national soccer team's matches against Iran and Russia, but some media outlets revealed at the time that the Football Association had no intention of accepting the invitation to the Central Asian Cup.
Coincidentally, Russian soccer has often "shown goodwill" to the national team recently, with people from all walks of life expressing their desire for the national team to play warm-up matches with Russia, which would be beneficial to both teams. However, the enthusiasm of the Russians has stuck to the cold shoulder of the Chinese Football Association, which has never responded to the proposed warm-up with Russia; according to relevant information, the national soccer team has no plans to warm-up with Russia this year.
Looking at the recent situation of the national soccer team, it is not difficult to understand why the Football Association went cold turkey on the possibility of a match against Russia. There is a huge gap between the strength of the national soccer team and Russia, and the national soccer team's greatest fear is a loss, especially a crushing defeat, which would set off many unexpected chain reactions. In fact, a few years ago, the national soccer team had the courage to take the initiative to warm up with the world's strongest teams. in 2017, the national soccer team found Serbia and Colombia for warm-up matches; at the 2018 China Cup, the national soccer team invited the Czech Republic and Wales.
However, against such a strong team, the national soccer team lost worse and worse time and time again, especially the 6-goal loss to Wales in the China Cup, which completely enraged the relevant "leaders" who were there to watch the game. Since then, the then national soccer coach, Lippi, began to be limited by his coaching position and many of his authorities were withdrawn; at the same time, there were incredible proposals for the U25 training team and the national training team, which started a period of chaos.
Since then, the national soccer team has suffered from a severe phobia of strong teams, and the Football Association has not dared to invite opponents much stronger than the national soccer team, turning instead to Myanmar, India or the Philippines in an attempt to rebuild confidence in the national soccer team. The Football Association basically continued this route in terms of scheduling two warm-up opponents this year, New Zealand and Palestine, so expect them to be reluctant to play Russia.
