After Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Iran, Uzbekistan and other national football associations have declined the CFA's warm-up invitation, the Chinese national team's warm-up preparation program has suffered a major setback. Before the upcoming Sino-Vietnamese war, Syria, the only warm-up opponent in the original plan, could only send a team with a seriously incomplete lineup due to various reasons, which undoubtedly made the effect of this warm-up game greatly reduced.
Recently, the Syrian Football Federation (SFF) announced the list of national team participants in the UAE training camp, totaling only 10 players, who are Ibrahim Alama, Moussa, Latif Nasan, Olabi, Sawouni, Ahmad, Omar Maidani, Tameer, Ali Reina and Omar. In addition to these 10 players from Syria's domestic league, six other Syrian internationals playing in the Bahraini league will be joining the camp, including Moayad Ayan, Krumah, Isla Hamweyah, Ashkar, Osama Omari and Al-Bahr, according to Syrian media reports. This means that leading scorers Soma and Hribin, and defenders Saleh and Maidani will miss the warm-up match against China. Syria's head coach Marustan said that he will lead a "broken team" to face the Chinese team: "Most of the international players are unable to take part in the match with China because they have other game duties. From the beginning of October, these players will be able to report back to the national team one after another."
Originally, CFA planned to play three warm-up matches, but the warm-up program had to be scaled down due to the inability to find suitable opponents. Now, there is only one warm-up match left, and the opponent is sending the remnants of the team, which undoubtedly makes the effect of the warm-up greatly reduced. This warm-up match against Syria will be held on September 30 in the United Arab Emirates.
