As the frontrunner in Group A, the Syrian soccer team has already locked up the first place in the group and the ticket to the Round of 12 with their seven wins. So what kind of attitude will they take to the field in the final match of the 40-team tournament, facing our team? According to internal sources, the Syrian team's goal is clear, that is, to beat our team in the "final", in order to be in the best condition to meet the fierce competition in the final 12.
Judging from Syria's media and related reports, the team is eager to beat our team. In March this year, the Syrian team took advantage of the international match day cycle to hold overseas training, but failed to defeat Bahrain and Iran by a large margin, a result that triggered the dissatisfaction of fans. Syrian media and fans have called for the team's manager Maroul to be dismissed, and even the president of the Syrian Football Federation, Ghayeb, has been criticized. According to foreign media reports, this matter even attracted the attention of the Syrian Ministry of Sports, the Minister of Sports Muwala personally intervene to mediate.
Muwara said that the Syrian Football Federation would have to pay Maroul $500,000 in compensation if he was fired, while Maroul currently earns only $30,000 a month. The Syrian Football Federation, which is financially strained, cannot afford this compensation. In addition, warm-up matches are different in nature from official matches. The SFA has also made a solemn promise that the team will win the remaining three matches of the Top 40.
From this, it is not difficult to speculate that the Syrian Football Association has been trying to push for the Group A matches to be moved to another location. In other words, the rumor that "the Syrian team intends to let our team down" is pure nonsense.
It is worth noting that Ghayeb, the president of the Syrian Football Federation, said in a media interview on June 11 that the team has already begun preparations for the Top 12 tournament. A win over our team would give the team a good start to their preparations for the Top 12.
It is understood that after the Syrian team finished its match against Guam on June 7 local time, Maroul granted the team a day off the following day. Starting on the 9th, the team officially entered the preparation for the match against our team. Currently, all players are available except for striker Madik Madkian, who was injured in the match against Guam, who is confirmed to be out of the China-Syria match. In recent days, the Syrian team has also specialized in analyzing some of our team's previous match videos.
In an interview with the media, Maroul said, "I am very happy that the Syrian team has managed to advance to the next stage of the World Qualification Tournament. But our goal is clear and that is to beat our team! Our team now has changed a lot from the past and they have five naturalized players. This is a tough challenge for us because our team is full of stars."
Syria head coach Maroul
Marul said, "Our current team is a very strong team. Against them, we will try our best to control the ball and then make full use of the slower speed of our backline players to create attacking opportunities. Our two center backs seem to be a bit impatient. We can't give our players too much space on the ball or they can take full advantage."
Maroul also mentioned Wu Lei. He said, "They have a professional player (Wu Lei) who plays for the Spaniards, who is very threatening and is more used to playing as a 'second striker' behind the naturalized strikers. Therefore, we need to split him and the midfielders behind him in the game. This is something that will determine the future of the game."
Obviously, the Syrian team has already had a full understanding of our technical and tactical characteristics and individual ability characteristics, and has formulated a corresponding strategy. Our team needs to be prepared for a tough battle.
