In accordance with the established arrangement, China's men's soccer team is expected to assemble around August 17 to start preparing for the challenge of the Qatar World Cup Qualifier Asian Zone 12 Tournament, which will open on September 2nd. According to a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily, one of the key considerations for the coaching team to extend the preparation cycle is to arrange several high-profile international warm-up matches for the team before the official start of the 12-team tournament to ensure the effectiveness of the preparation.
It is reported that, in view of the characteristics of the 12-team tournament and the difficulty of the game, our team's warm-up program will mainly target opponents from different groups. Due to the impact of the epidemic as well as international and domestic anti-epidemic measures, the national football team may continue to train and live in a more closed environment during the nearly three months from the assembly in mid-August to the completion of the first six rounds of the 12-team tournament on November 16th. Therefore, the 12 strong match to the whole team and the CFA staff in the physical and psychological test will be unprecedented.
Despite the national soccer team's four consecutive victories in the second half of the Top 40 to advance to the Round of 12, in reality, the only key battle that truly tested skill in the final four matches of the Top 40 was the final game against Syria. It was also the only match at Asia's top level that the national soccer team has been involved in since November 2019, when it concluded the first round of the 40-team tournament, nearly two years ago.
At present, it seems likely that the AFC will comply with the wishes of FIFA and the sponsors and keep the home and away match system of the 12-team tournament unchanged. In the context of the world and domestic epidemic prevention situation is still serious, the global countries (regions) epidemic prevention policy and international travel conditions are still strict, our team in the next six months it is difficult to invite other countries (regions) teams to enter the warm-up. In other words, I am afraid that our team needs to go out of the country in order to have a quality warm-up.
It should be noted that once the CFA can contact the national football team to the appropriate warm-up opponents, the national football team does not rule out in the domestic pre-training, in late August after the visit, to participate in the warm-up matches as well as the first round of September 2, the first round of the 12-team tournament away from home. And such a training mode is likely to be throughout the process of the national football team throughout the 12-team tournament. Extend the time of pre-match training, in fact, is also for the team to visit the warm-up to create conditions in advance.
In accordance with the usual practice, the national football team to determine the warm-up opponents is unlikely to be the same group of opponents in the 12 strong, so the primary goal will be to focus on the other group of six teams. If affected by the epidemic and other factors, these teams can not warm up with the national football team, then the CFA will target and the national football team with the same group of opponents with similar technical and tactical style of the Asian teams.
The schedule shows that the national football team will participate in the first six rounds of the 12-team tournament in September, October and November this year. The national footballers will not only be unable to return to their clubs to participate in the F.A.C.A. Cup during this period, but may even be unable to reunite with their families as they continue to train and live collectively during the nearly four-month cycle of preparation and competition for the 12-team tournament. The CFA will also strive for some favorable conditions for the national football team according to the results of the group matches, such as exchanging with other member associations to swap the number of home and away matches for the national football team, so as to facilitate the travel and preparation of the national football team.
