China national soccer team
slim down the lineup
Compared to that nearly 50-day long closed overseas training at the end of August, the competition trip to West Asia lasted only 10 days and ended with two matches, so the coaching team plans to carry out a large-scale streamlining of the existing lineup.
In the previous four matches, the coaching team carried 32 players to West Asia for insurance purposes, considering the long preparation cycle. Now, facing two competitions in a short period of time, only 27 players are theoretically enough to cope.
During this time, the Chinese national soccer team is training in Suzhou while in isolation. The official announcement showed that only Zhang Linpeng, who was injured in the match against Saudi Arabia, was absent, while all other players remained healthy and participated in the team's daily training.
However, according to sources, Zhang Linpeng's injury will not affect his participation in the next two matches against Oman and Australia, which is undoubtedly good news for the Chinese national soccer team.
Despite facing a certain personnel crisis at the wingback position, as things stand, the coaching team does not plan to draft new players into the squad, and the team's roster will still be culled from the existing 32 players.
Wu Lei, who plays for Espanyol FC, will meet the team before the match. The fixture schedule shows that Espanyol will host Granada in the 13th round of La Liga on Nov. 6 in the afternoon local time.
Once the Chinese national soccer team confirms their trip to the West, then they will also depart roughly around November 6, meaning Wu Lei is perfectly capable of departing for the Chinese national soccer team's venue immediately after playing in the current round of La Liga matches.
Trying to keep their hopes of getting out of the tournament alive
According to the schedule, China's national soccer team will face Oman on Nov. 11 and Australia five days later.
After the first four rounds of matches, the points in this group are as follows - Saudi Arabia tops the table with 12 points from four consecutive wins, Australia has nine points from three wins and one loss, Japan and Oman both have six points from two wins and two losses, and China's national soccer team has three points from one win and three losses.
With the exception of Japan, who slightly exceeded expectations, the other teams performed largely in line with pre-tournament expectations, which naturally included the Chinese national soccer team.
Putting aside some of the proceedings, without the advantage of a home field, China's national soccer team has scored three points in its first four matches, which is a reflection of the team's overall strength right now.
In fact, with the overall level of China's national soccer team, it is simply a pipe dream to achieve the top two places in the group - rationally analyzing, the best China's national soccer team can strive for is only the third place.
In other words, it's actually about extending the theoretical possibility of getting out of the tournament as far as possible, just like in the last Top 12 tournament, where after defeating South Korea and Uzbekistan at home, the Chinese national soccer team extended its hopes of getting out of the tournament to the final round against Qatar. In the end, the Chinese national soccer team came back to win 2-1, and although they failed to finish third, it was a decent exit.
Now, Li Tie and his team also need to extend their theoretical hopes of making it out of the tournament as long as possible, and once they lose all two of their November matches, China's national soccer team will essentially be declared out of the tournament early, with the final four matches of next year's Top 12 going into garbage time.
Once such a situation occurs, it may even trigger a chain reaction, after all, the next year during the Spring Festival, China's national soccer team will have to challenge Vietnam on the road, with the results of consecutive defeats to play Vietnam as an away game, it is hard to guarantee that there will not be some unacceptable results.
In order to extend their theoretical hopes of making it out of the tournament, the Chinese national soccer team will need to win at least one of their two matches in November, preferably with 4-6 points from two matches, which is a tall order for the team.
According to media reports, it might be wise for the Chinese national soccer team to change its formation back to the 4-2-3-1, which the players are more familiar with, to further strengthen the midfield defense during the recent training session in Suzhou.
