Qatar 2022, June 8, 1 a.m. BST
World Cup
Group A of the second round of the Asian qualifiers and the 40-team tournament ushered in a new round of competition. Our men's national team, coached by Li Tie, will challenge the Philippines at the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates. With Syria already locking up the top two spots in the group and the top spot in Group A in sight, the only way for our team to qualify for the Round of 12 is to win all three points in the remaining three matches. For now, the rudder of fate is still in our hands, and the Philippines is the first hurdle we need to cross.
On May 30, China's national team won a 7-0 victory over Guam at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center, opening the door for the restarted Top 40 tournament and offering a generous gift to head coach Li Tie on his debut after nearly 17 months in office. The following day, the CFA released the news that the remaining 40 matches will be held in the United Arab Emirates, the previously created "right place, right time, right person" instantly into vain.
After in-depth coverage of the incident, it was found that the Syrian Football Association and the Olympic Organizing Committee played a key role in the incident, creating a lot of trouble for our men's football team in the remaining 40-team matches, especially the match against the Philippines. Fortunately, the national football team has maintained a good mentality, with Li Tie stating, "All arrangements are the best arrangements! Just be united and go all out! There is a particularly touching saying: 'Where you are, the home stadium is'! Thank you for the support of all fans and friends!"
At 9:00 a.m. on June 3, the entire 29-member national football team left Suzhou for Shanghai, then took a chartered flight to Dubai at 13:00 a.m.. After more than ten hours of flight, arrived at the Sharjah Resident Hotel at 1:00 a.m. Beijing time on June 4, with only 96 hours left for the match with the Philippines. The team numbered 29 because the CFA had temporarily drafted Ji Xiang, Liu Binbin and Tan Long into the team as a precautionary measure. Before the team's departure, the entire squad had a final training session at the Suzhou Taihu Football Sports Center.
Before this round of matches, the situation in Group A is as follows: Syria has won all six matches and has secured the top two places in the group ahead of time, and is only one step away from determining the top spot in the group. Our team ranked second with 10 points in 5 matches. According to the rules, four (or five, if Qatar won the first place in the group or the second place in the group of the four best results, the second place in the group of the fifth place in the ranking of the results will also be qualified for the third round) of the best results of the group of the second team still have the hope of advancing. The Philippines are third with seven points from five matches. With the withdrawal of North Korea from Group H, the results against the bottom team in the group are not counted when comparing the results of the eight second-placed teams in the group. Currently, our team is ranked seventh on this list, but still has a chance to jump into the top half of the zone.
Since FIFA has closed the access to the match records of the national team's A-level competitions, there is a lack of an official account of the match records between our team and the Philippines. But what is certain is that our team previously held an overwhelming advantage over the Philippines. According to the data provided by the People's Daily Online, China's team has played 12 times against the Philippines before, winning 11 and drawing 1, scoring 56 goals and conceding only 1. But in October 2019, the first round match between the two sides in this World Preliminary 40, China's team shot wildly 35 times but exchanged 0-0 with the Philippines, when Yang Xu, Wu Lei and Artemis Jun Min all missed many good opportunities to score.
As you can see from the big win over Guam, the Tiejia Army is getting better at attacking set pieces, but it didn't play very fluidly in the first half. Because there is no real high center forward in this team, you can see that Li Tie does not want this team to play the simple and rough type of long pass and hang style of play. Against the strength of the Philippines is clearly higher than the Guam team, from the tactical point of view, China's team must need to be more efficient, not to mention that the latter three games are also related to the national football team and the second place team in the group of the "competition".
The current Philippine team is full of naturalized players who were born abroad but chose to represent the Philippine national team because one of their fathers or mothers is Filipino. Veteran midfielders like Reichelt, who has played the most games for the national team in this unit, was born in West Berlin, Germany, and 36-year-old forward Guirado was born in Malaga, Spain. Eleven of this unit played in that 0-0 draw against our team in 2019, including captain Schrock. But goalkeeper Etheridge, who has just completed a major life event to finish his marriage, was not included in this roster.
The Philippine team, which had been preparing for the match in Doha, Qatar, was supposed to charter a flight to our country on May 31 local time, but with the outbreak of the epidemic in Syria and the Maldives, they were told to stay in the area as well. The AFC then announced the change of venue for the match, and the Philippine team arrived in Sharjah on June 3, a few hours earlier than the national football team, but of course their flight was also much shorter than our team.
Against China, Spanish-born defense stalwart Silva will be suspended for accumulating yellow cards, and under normal circumstances, De Murga will take on the heavy responsibility of "directing" the defense. Because head coach Scott Cooper has been in the Philippine national team for many years, and is also the coach of the ADT (a team of young players who have a way out to play in the Philippine domestic league, and this time promoted four players to the national team) salon team, so he is already well versed in the team's tuning and style of play.
Before the resumption of the 40-team tournament, Scott Cooper shouted that he would lead the team to strive for three consecutive victories, and captain Schrock expressed similar views after the change of venue, but the hard power of this force is still at least one level lower than that of our team, especially in the back line, which is missing two important players. For the Tiejia Army, the objective difficulties of traveling and hot and humid climate already exist, how to overcome the difficulties to get the desired results is the most important.
Wu Lei (1979-), Chinese footballer
Wu Xi, Ekerson, Allan and other midfielders of the national football team will again face and meet the challenge. In order to enter the Asian 12, playing the Philippines, the Iron Family has no way back, must win! (Cheuk Ao Yau)
Expected to start for the National Football Team: Yan Junling; Stanley Wang, Jiang Guangtai, Zhang Linpeng, Tang Miao; Wu Xinghan, Wu Xi, Zhang Xunzhe; Wu Lei; Aixon, Alan
