From September 18th to 27th, Asian soccer powerhouses such as the South Korean men's soccer team and the Japanese men's soccer team had intense warm-up matches within the national team match window set by the World Football Federation (WFF). Among them, the Japanese men's soccer team beat the powerful U.S. team 2-0; the South Korean men's soccer team led by Son drew 2-2 with Costa Rica; and the Iranian team beat the Uruguayan team with Suarez 1-0 at home. However, the CFA has yet to schedule a world-class tournament at the national team level in the event, except for organizing the U21 national team's overseas training trip to Croatia.
The Chinese men's soccer team missed out on a spot in the Qatar World Cup after a poor showing in the World Cup qualifying round of 12, failing to make it out of the group. As a result, the construction of the national team is almost at a standstill this year. Despite the U23 national team's participation in the East Asian Cup, there is no clear timetable for the entire second half of the year.
In stark contrast, the South Korean and Japanese men's soccer teams have been exceptionally active on the world stage. They are actively preparing for the World Cup and improving their strength during the world tournament in September.
In June, the Korean men's soccer team played a number of high-quality matches against Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Egypt. These matches simulated the Korean team in the group stage of the World Cup and provided a solid foundation for preparation. Despite a 1-5 loss to Brazil, the team then defeated Chile 2-0 and drew 2-2 with South American powerhouse Paraguay.
The South Korean men's soccer team hosted Costa Rica and Cameroon in their home country during the world tournament at the end of September. Manager Bento recalled overseas players such as Son, and after more than a year recalled Lee Gang-in, who had a great season in La Liga's Mallorca, and Chinese Super League player Son Jun-ho made his debut.On the night of the 23rd, they drew 2-2 with Costa Rica.
The Japanese men's soccer team has competed more frequently this year. In addition to organizing the U23 men's soccer team to participate in the Dubai Cup and the U21 men's soccer team to participate in the U23 Asian Cup and finish third, at the national team level, in the Kirin Cup in June, the Japanese team lost to Brazil 0-1, beat Paraguay 4-1, and beat Ghana 4-1, and in the final, they finished as runners-up against Tunisia 0-3.
On the evening of September 23, Japan defeated the United States 2-0 in Dusseldorf, Germany. In this game, the Japanese team sent nine players to stay in the world, in addition to the goalkeeper Shuichi Kwonada and right back Hiroki Sakai, the other starters are from the mainstream European leagues, such as Kamata Earth, Kukai Ei, Endo Hang, Ito Junya, Tomoyasu Kenyo, Yoshida Maya and other Japanese famous players. The U.S. team also has Rayner, McKenney and other players playing in Europe's top five leagues, but in the face of outstanding technical Japanese players, the U.S. team is in a completely passive state.
Of the six Asian teams playing in the World Cup, hosts Qatar were the only ones to suffer a defeat. They lost 0-2 to Canada in a warm-up match in the early hours of Sept. 24, Beijing time. Three days earlier, they had lost 0-3 to Croatia.
After this year's World Qualifier, by the epidemic and the league and other aspects of the impact of the Chinese Football Association did not organize any national team level games, seems to have "self-abandonment". Even the position of the team's head coach has not been properly resolved, which may be a great distance between the Chinese men's soccer world.
