On August 18th, Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team kicked off its assembly in Shanghai to prepare for the upcoming Top 12 tournament. According to the scheduled arrangement, the international players, who finished the task of Group A of the Chinese Super League first, finished the assembly in advance, while the players of Suzhou, who finished the league later, enjoyed an extra day of vacation. The team is scheduled to have a week-long training session at the Shanghai Houpaier Football Park and depart for Doha, Qatar, on the 26th, where the team's first two group matches are most likely to be held.
The first day of training was focused on restoring fitness and waking up the body. Before the training, captain Zhang Linpeng was interviewed by the media. He said he had just arrived in Shanghai on the morning of the 18th and utilized the time to accompany his family, as he was physically and mentally exhausted after the preliminary league games.
Talking about this 12-team tournament, Zhang Linpeng said that the route of this tournament is different from the past, "We may face a long time of closed training, for which we have been psychologically prepared, and this is also a brand new challenge for us."
In the most extreme case, leaving from Shanghai on the 26th, the national football team could potentially train and play in West Asia for up to 80 days before returning home. In this regard, Zhang Linpeng said, "We have long been psychologically prepared, everyone is ready, under the epidemic is also helpless, we will still try to do our best to meet the challenge."
Regarding the problem of not being able to accompany his family for a long time, Zhang Linpeng said that he has basically adapted to the two years of the tournament system league, "Wherever I go, I carry a picture of my wife and children, and run through all the away matches in the hope that they can give me encouragement, help me, and play to the best level."
This is Zhang Linpeng's second personal 12, as a veteran of the team, he said: 12 is a new start for me, I hope to work with everyone, no matter what the result, I will do my best.
Compared to the last Top 12 tournament, Zhang Linpeng believes that the biggest change is the epidemic. "Everything has changed under the epidemic conditions, in the past there was a home and away difference, this time we don't even have a home ground, and the opponents may not play on their home ground, which is very different from the home and away system, we have to prepare ourselves psychologically, which is more important than anything else."
Due to injuries, the national team's reserve of personnel in the right back position has been greatly affected, Tang Miao and Mingri are absent from this training session. In this regard, Zhang Linpeng said he is ready to play right back. "For so many years, I sometimes play center back, sometimes play right back, there is no big problem in this regard."
