■ Yankovic directs China's head coach on the sidelines. Xinhua News Agency
■ China's Lin Liangming attacks with a fish header during the match on March 23rd. Published by Xinhua News Agency
No national network broadcasts, international soccer team stifles New Zealand, coach says it's only the "first half".
New Zealand team warm-up match 0:0 Chinese team
Yesterday at 2pm Beijing time, China and New Zealand played a warm-up match at Mount Wisdom Stadium in Auckland. Although the Chinese team's scene is not dominant, but the defense counterattack is still very targeted. In the second half, Wu Lei played red card, but also lost a "quasi single knife". Finally, the two teams 0:0 draw.
Counting this draw, the national soccer team hasn't tasted a win in a year and a half.
■ Wang Enemy, New Express reporter
Super low-key domestic unplayed National Football League appearance
Going to New Zealand for a warm-up match was the schedule officially decided on Feb. 1 by the Chinese Football Association (CFA).
For this reason, the national soccer team made a quick decision to promote Yankovic, the coach of the Asian Games team, to coach of the national soccer team, which will start training on March 1st. However, it seems that the CFA did not want to discuss the broadcasting of the match with the general manager of New Zealand soccer from the very beginning. That's why there were no domestic TV stations or video sites broadcasting the New Zealand match yesterday.
In fact, the national soccer team didn't even go with CCTV on this flight to New Zealand. The CCTV sports channel reporter said that they have a resident reporter in New Zealand to help record the match. However, for domestic fans, not seeing the debut of the "Yang-style national football team" is undoubtedly a very regrettable thing. Since yesterday morning's Asian Games, fans have been asking on social media whether the national soccer team has video of the match. Some domestic sports journalists had to choose to watch the video broadcast on New Zealand television via satellite TV.
Because there was no video broadcast, no one could see the specific performance of the national football team, so the game did not cause much sensation on social networks. According to the technical statistics after the game, the ultra-low-profile "Yang-style national soccer team" seemed to perform well. In terms of ball possession, the national soccer team was at a 42% disadvantage, but the number of shots (15-11) and the number of positive shots (8-7) were on the upside... In the second half, the national soccer team also created a red card for their opponents, as Wu Lei gave New Zealand midfield general Tommy Smith a red card. The national soccer team gained 0.:0 by this technical statistic, which looks a bit unfortunate. In the final analysis, this is a good opportunity for Jankovic to reap the benefits of "opening the door", but in the end, it's a shame to end up with a boring draw.
This 0:0 also continues to embarrass the national soccer team. The last time the national football team won in an official match dates back to October 8, 2021 in the preliminaries. At that time, the national football team beat Vietnam 3.:2. After that, the national soccer team played seven more matches with three draws and four losses. Since last April, the national soccer team has not gathered again. Last summer, in the East Asian Cup, the national soccer team sent the Asian Games team. In other words, the national soccer team has not won a game for a year and a half.
Jankovic: The players deserve the jersey
In this match, Jankovic fielded a starting lineup of mostly veteran players. Among the 11 starters, there were no players who represented the national soccer team for the first time. In the second half, Jankovic replaced Lin Liangming, Chen Pu and other newcomers to the national soccer team. Regarding such a personnel arrangement, Jankovic said it was more for tactical considerations than any other purpose.
Jankovic said: "As I mentioned before, the drafting of players in this team has nothing to do with age. Experienced players always set a good example. "If a team has a lot of experienced older players sitting in town, it also helps the younger players to quickly integrate into the team. I'm happy to see that."
Despite failing to win the match with one more player, the overall performance of the national team in this match was widely recognized by public opinion. According to Jankovic, although it was a shame not to win, it was just the beginning of the new national team and he was very satisfied with the performance of the players. "In terms of mental attributes, I am proud of my players because they deserve this jersey and have done their best for this team for 90 minutes." Jankovic said.
When asked by a reporter to rate his debut and the first match of the new national football team, Jankovic smiled and said: "Let's talk about it after the second match." According to Jankovic, the two matches between New Zealand and New Zealand are one and the same, and the match in Auckland was only the "first half".
"I want to see if the players can maintain their focus, intensity of play and form for 180 minutes. At this stage, we can't talk about more technical and tactical details of the game because there is still a game to play, but there will definitely be a more in-depth analysis and summary after the Wellington game." Jankovic said.
