Following the latest news from the AFC, our U22 national football team has undergone a strategy change in the 99-age group's journey to Group 7 of the 5th U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers. Group rivals Brunei have announced their withdrawal from the tournament, which has made the challenge of our U22 national football team's quest to qualify for the group even more daunting.
Looking back at the U23 Asian Cup qualifying group draw in July this year, our team, as a second-tier team, was placed in the highly competitive Group 7 with Australia, Indonesia and Brunei. However, due to the severe impact of the epidemic in Southeast Asia, Brunei's domestic league has been suspended, coupled with the fact that the head coach of Brunei's U22 national football team, Rajagobal, returned to Malaysia last month, making it difficult for the Brunei team to organize their participation, thus opting out of this year's qualifiers.
Only three teams remain in our group. According to the rules, the first and the four best second-placed teams from the 11 groups in the qualifying rounds will advance to the final stage of the tournament, which will be held in Uzbekistan in June next year, together with the host team, Uzbekistan. This means that our team will have to make every effort to win the first place in the group in order to get a ticket to the final stage; if it can only finish second in the group, there is a risk that it will not be able to get out of the tournament because of the different playing times of each group.
Originally, the matches in our team's group were to be played in Indonesia, but due to the epidemic, the AFC has adjusted the venue to Tajikistan. Tajikistan was originally in charge of the second group, which was scheduled to start on October 25th, with the second and third rounds taking place on October 28th and 31st. The matches in our team's group are instead scheduled to be played on Oct. 27, 30 and Nov. 2, with Indonesia versus Australia, China versus Indonesia and Australia versus China, respectively.
With Brunei out of the picture, our team is facing some tough opponents. However, according to the latest schedule for Group 7, it is relatively favorable for our team. Our team's last match with Australia will be played on November 2, when the matches of nine groups have already ended on October 31, so our team can take advantage of this advantage and strive to "count" out of the tournament.
The Group 7 schedule is as follows:
Oct 27 17:00 Indonesia vs Australia
October 30th 17:00 China vs Indonesia
November 2 17:00 Australia vs China
[Note: The time difference between Tajikistan and our country is 3 hours, and the kick-off time is 20:00 Beijing time].
The CFA has issued a notice for the U22 national football team's training, and after the third stage of the Central League on October 5, China's U22 national football team will gather at the Xianghe base to prepare for the game.
