In the late afternoon of September 7, Beijing time, the Chinese men's soccer team unveiled their starting lineup for the crucial Round of 12 match against Japan, totaling 23 players. Head coach Li Tie made two changes from the squad that faced Australia in the first round, bringing Xu Xin and Zhu Chenjie into the list, while Wei Shihao and Yu Dabao were replaced. Meanwhile, seven players, including Liu Binbin, Li Lei, Wang Shangyuan, Dong Chunyu, Wang Qiuming, Barton and Guo Tianyu, were dropped again this time after failing to feature in the first round.
The absence of Wei Shihao in this 23-man list of the national football team has undoubtedly triggered widespread controversy. After all, in the first round against Australia, Wei Shihao substitution performance is not bad, and in the national youth period against the Japanese national youth also had excellent play.
Before the match, Li Tie had communicated with Wei Shihao twice individually, seemingly intending to give him a heavy responsibility in the crucial China-Japan showdown. However, to our surprise, Wei Shihao was not selected for the list without warning.
For this situation, many well-known domestic journalists and commentators have expressed their own opinions. Well-known commentator Huang Jianxiang expressed doubts about Li Tie's choice: "Li guide asked me: Wei Shihao performed well in the last game, why didn't he bring him on the field today? I guess it might be to increase the number of naturalized players. Director Li responded with a hmmmmmmm and didn't ask any further questions. To be honest, I really don't know how to explain this decision other than this reason to comfort him a bit."
In response to Wei Shihao's selection, Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Blush analyzed that although Wei Shihao is not injured, recent training performance is also acceptable, but taking into account the Chinese men's football team in this game is not possible to venture into the opponents on the attack, the main defense has become the consensus of the whole team. Xu Xin, Zhu Chenjie's selection reflects this point, and therefore do not need Wei Shihao such a pure offensive players.
Celebrity talk show Dong Lu believes that Wei Shihao may not yet have recovered to match condition: "If he is not even in the 23-man list, it can only mean that his physical (injury) and mental state do not have the conditions to participate in the match, and there can be no other reasons. Since they have already traveled to the away game, I believe that players who can contribute to the game, how can they not be selected into the list?"
Although Wei Shihao failed to play against the Japanese team is a foregone conclusion, but we still expect Li Tie can make full use of tonight's lineup, to create a strong team, and strive to score points against the Japanese team, to change the unfavorable situation of the first round of the "opening black".
