With the heavy announcement made by our Football Association on May 31, the national football team needed to pack their bags again in less than ten hours to embark on their journey to Dubai after just finishing their match against Guam.
With the unfavorable condition of losing the home field advantage, the national football team will have the last three matches of the 40-team tournament, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of getting out of the line.
Just in the early morning of June 1, the Syrian team also made a public statement, resolutely will not adjust the game time for the national football team, which indicates that the next schedule will be more intensive, the national football players' physical adjustment time is extremely limited.
Our Football Association then held a press conference.
Jet lag and high temperatures test national soccer team
Originally, the national football team is almost to "wait for labor" attitude to meet the last four matches of the 40 strong match - the team since May 14 will start training in Shanghai, and on the 19th formally stationed in the red zone in Suzhou.
While the national football team's opponents, Maldives and Syria, are only expected to depart from Dubai for China on May 30, the Philippines, which is training in Doha, departs on June 1st. Compared with other teams, the national soccer team has plenty of time to prepare for these four matches.
However, now all the circumstances have changed - the national football team will take a chartered flight to Dubai at the earliest on the 2nd, and at this time the Maldives, the Philippines and Syria three teams have been in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for a period of time for training, the national football team from the "wait for labor" party! The national football team has suddenly turned from a party of "waiting for the labor" to a party of "laborers attacking far".
West Asia in June is in the hot weather, Dubai daytime temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius, the lowest temperature at night is also 30 degrees Celsius, the national football team's three matches will be played in extremely hot weather conditions.
Compared to the air-conditioned facilities in several of Doha's stadiums, Dubai's stadiums are completely devoid of such cooling devices - and with spring and summer currently in full swing in the country, the players are bound to have a bit of an adjustment process when they travel to Dubai.
At the same time, the national football team also needs to overcome the trouble of jet lag. There is a four-hour time difference between Dubai and Beijing, and the national football team will not have much time to adapt after arriving in Dubai. The AFC requires that all group matches must be completed before June 15, which means that the national football team will have to be put into battle immediately after arriving in Dubai.
At present, the specific schedule of China's Football Association is communicating with the AFC, a more reasonable program is June 7, 11 and 15, respectively, three games.
But now about the specific arrangements of the schedule, long ago, not initially in our country to play the tournament system as basically can decide for themselves, to Dubai for the game, everything must comply with the overall arrangements of the AFC.
It was in this context that the Syrian team issued a sternly worded statement that it would not change the time of the match for our team because of the possibility of our team profiting.
National soccer players thank the crowd after the game.
Head coaches need to overcome mental hurdles
Compared to the objective environment such as jet lag and high temperature, I am afraid the biggest destabilizing factor for our team is the psychology of the team from top to bottom.
After all, since the beginning of this year, the entire team's preparation has been centered around playing conference matches at home. From our Football Association to head coach Li Tie and all the players, all of them are confident about playing at home.
In the first match against Guam, our team also showed enough momentum and fighting spirit, and eventually beat the opponent 7-0 in a big way with the cheering of nearly 30,000 fans in the stadium.
Now the team was suddenly informed that the home qualification is no longer, from top to bottom there is also a big psychological gap. 31 evening briefing, there are media to China's football association media relations department director Dai Xiaowei asked how to help players overcome psychological problems, Dai Xiaowei said at the time, "despite the sudden change in the game, but I believe that the players will be holding the determination to win the game! , and have the confidence to play a good form."
The good thing is, some important players in the national team, such as Wu Lei, Zhang Linpeng, Wu Xi, Artemisia and others have had the experience of going to West Asia and Southeast Asia to play in the last World Qualifier, and some of the naturalized players have also had the experience of playing the Asian Championship in West Asia, so the player level is still relatively experienced in overcoming such a disadvantage of the away field.
But the head coaching level is a completely different story - Li Tie has led teams domestically before, and apart from the 2019 East Asian Cup, he hasn't had any experience of leading a team to play abroad.
The pressure of the Top 40 and the East Asian Cup are very different concepts, losing the home qualification to go on the road to play the tournament system of the game, which will also completely disrupt Li Tie's preparation rhythm.
The role of the head coach can sometimes even be decisive in a big game like this, and now it's up to Li Tie to lead his team to overcome the difficulties.
The national soccer team is about to leave for West Asia.
Difficulty of getting out of the lineup again
China's Football Association previously succeeded in getting the right to host the remaining matches of the 40-team tournament system, it seems that China's team has got the home field advantage, but this so-called home field advantage is actually what China's team should get.
The first phase of the 40 strong match, the national football team because of the seeding, in terms of scheduling is experiencing away from home and away from home, only one competition with Guam at home, and the Philippines, Syria, two home group exit competitors, all on the road.
Originally, the second phase of the tournament was supposed to have three home games for the national soccer team, which is the guarantee that the team should normally have.
Now because of the unexpected situation, the national football team lost three home qualification, which will undoubtedly make the national football team out of the line of duty is infinitely more difficult. Despite the addition of naturalized players, the strength of the national football team has not been qualitatively improved this year, want to ensure that the entry into the top 12, the bottom line of the second phase of the national football team's four games is to get 10 points, preferably to take all 12 points.
If by virtue of the advantages of home timing, geographical and human, the national football team is a high probability to finally complete the goal - the fans of the national football team's support has been revealed in the game and Guam, and the home game of the various guarantees, but also to ensure that the national football team every preparation day in order.
Li Tie said in his pre-game conference with Guam that the coverage team, this time, was the best he had experienced.
