July 1, 3:00 pm, Beijing time, the World Qualifier Asian Zone 12 draw ceremony kicked off, the AFC used a live video stream to present the process. China's soccer team was unfortunately placed in Group B. The strong rivals in the same group, in addition to Japan and Australia, were the same team that had been in the last
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In the middle of the debut of Saudi Arabia, as well as the strength of recent years, Oman and Vietnam. As the fourth-ranked team in Group B, it is self-evidently difficult for our team to break through the pack.
Slightly unfortunate to be in the same group as the UAE
The strength of our team in the fierce competition of the 12-team tournament makes it difficult to secure a lock on a place in the tournament, no matter which group they are placed in. Before the results of the draw were announced, many soccer experts conducted in-depth analyses of the possible grouping of our team. From the final result, for our team, such a draw result can only be considered a "medium", neither too ideal, nor too bad.
In this group, the strength of the Japanese team is significantly higher than ours. As for Australia and Saudi Arabia, they each have a winning record against us. Both Saudi Arabia and Australia participated in the last tournament in Russia.
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The team's experience in major tournaments is significantly better than that of ours. Especially the Australian team, after the completion of the transition between the old and the new, players such as Owen and Soutar have become the core strength of the team.
It is worth mentioning that in the choice of the third-ranking team, our team did not manage to be in the same group with the United Arab Emirates, which is more or less a pity for our team. The UAE, as a West Asian team, has always been our team's more favored opponent, with its soft style of play and slower speed of advancement. However, in the second phase of the group stage of the World Qualification Tournament, a number of naturalized players from the UAE joined the team, making the overall strength improved. In contrast, Saudi Arabia can be regarded as our team's old rival. In Group D of the 40-team tournament, Saudi Arabia locked the qualifying spot early with 6 wins and 2 draws, and also beat Uzbekistan twice, showing strong competitiveness.
Oman, which is in the same group as our team, has been one of our favorite opponents, and our team has won a lot and lost a little in the records of the two sides' encounters. However, in recent years, the two sides have played less, Oman's real strength is currently difficult to predict. In the Top 40, Oman and the host Qatar group, 8 group matches achieved 6 wins, 0 draws and 2 losses, two losses are against Qatar. In the six matches against India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Oman won all of them.
National Day, Lunar New Year double battle in Vietnam
Sixth-ranked Vietnam since 2019
Asian cup (e.g. soccer)
Since then, the team has impressed, sticking to a technical style and improving significantly in recent years. Despite failing to make it out of the tournament, Vietnam had already engaged in direct confrontation with Iraq in the group match against them, and had a 2-1 lead over Iraq in the first half. The second group match against Iran was a tough loss for Vietnam, but not on the field, with Azmoun's individual ability deciding the game.
Group G, where Vietnam is located in the 40-team tournament, is a strong group that contains Malaysia and Indonesia, Vietnam's two close neighbors, in addition to the UAE as the host in the second half of the group stage. It was widely believed before the tournament that the competition in this group would be fierce, but surprisingly, Vietnam achieved a record of 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in 8 matches, with the loss coming to the host UAE in the final round after a place had already been secured in the qualifying round. With the addition of naturalized and mixed-race players, the Vietnamese team is now much stronger and our team must pay enough attention.
In fact, before this draw, Vietnam had already considered our team as their main rival, Vietnam
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The people involved made it clear that they wanted to be in the same group as our team.
Looking at the schedule, both group matches between China and Vietnam coincide with important holidays in the country. The first encounter will take place on October 7, the last day of the National Day holiday, when our team will host Vietnam, which will be a great opportunity for our team to get all three points. The second round match is scheduled for February 1, 2022, the traditional Chinese New Year in China and Vietnam. During such an important holiday, neither our team nor the Vietnamese team would want to cause trouble to their fans. However, as seen in the past, the more important the match, the easier it is for our team to carry the burden of thoughts.
Home field advantage key
The group stage of the 12-team tournament will officially start on September 2, and our team has 4 home matches out of the 6 group stage matches this year, which is undoubtedly a considerable advantage. If we can get good results in these four home games, we may still be able to retain a ray of hope of getting out of the group.
In addition to the opening trip to Australia and the away match against Saudi Arabia on October 12, our team will host Japan on September 7, Vietnam on October 7, Oman on November 11 and Australia again on November 16 respectively. In terms of overall strength, Japan is undoubtedly the strongest team in the group, 2002
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After that, Japan has made it out of every World Qualifier with ease, and this tournament is not expected to be much different. For our team to get out of the group, they need to get enough points from the fifth and sixth ranked teams, and also try to compete with Saudi Arabia and Australia. Australia, in particular, is likely to be our team's main opponent.
With the gradual fading out of the old generation of international players such as Cahill, the overall strength of the Kangaroos has been greatly reduced. Although the young players are gradually emerging, but the game experience and resistance to pressure, I am afraid that can not be compared with the old "Kangaroo".
