Since May 31, when the Chinese Football Association (CFA) issued an official notice, the national football team has just finished its encounter with Guam in Suzhou, and has once again packed its bags and embarked on a journey to Dubai.
With the loss of home advantage, the team will have to face three challenges in the final round of the 40-team tournament, which will undoubtedly add to the obstacles on the road to the national football team's exit.
In the early morning of June 1, the Syrian team officially announced that it would not adjust the game time, which makes the next schedule more compact, the national football players' physical adjustment time is more and more urgent. Our Football Association then held a press conference.
Jet lag and high temperatures test national soccer team
Originally, the national football team is to "wait for the last four games of the 40 strong" attitude - from May 14, the team began to gather in Shanghai, and on the 19th formally stationed in the red zone in Suzhou.
However, opponents Maldives and Syria are only expected to depart from Dubai for China on May 30, while the Philippines, who are training in Doha, depart on June 1st. The national soccer team has more time to prepare for these four matches compared to the other teams.
But now, everything has changed - the national football team will take a chartered flight to Dubai on the 2nd at the earliest, while at this time, the Maldives, the Philippines and Syria have been in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar for a period of time for training, the national football team from the "to wait for labor" side suddenly became "tired of running". The national football team from "to wait for" a party, suddenly became "tired of running".
West Asia in June is in the heat of the day, 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 such hot climate conditions.
Compared to the air-conditioned stadiums in Doha, Dubai's stadiums have little in the way of artificial cooling - and with the country currently in the throes of spring and summer, 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. Dubai and Beijing have a four-hour time difference, the national football team arrived in Dubai, the adaptation time is extremely limited, the AFC requires that all group matches must be completed before June 15, which means that the national football team arrives in Dubai, immediately have to put into battle.
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 organization of the schedule, has long since ceased to be initially held in our country as a tournament system as basically by their own say, to Dubai for the game, everything is to comply with the overall arrangements of the AFC.
It was in this context that the Syrian team issued a sternly worded statement saying that it would not change the time of the match for our team because of the possibility that our team would profit from it.
National soccer players thank fans after the game.
Head coaches need to overcome mental hurdles
Compared to objective circumstances like jet lag and high temperatures, I'm 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 the conference tournament at home. From our Football Association to the 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 finally beat the opponent by a big score of 7-0 in front of the cheering of nearly 30,000 fans in the stadium.
However, 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, some 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 of the game, but I believe that the players will be determined to hold a must win the determination to participate in the match and have the determination to play in good form."
Fortunately, some important players in the national team, such as Wu Lei, Zhang Linpeng, Wu Xi, Artemis Jun Min and others have had the experience of traveling to West Asia and Southeast Asia to play in the last World Qualifier, and some of the naturalized players have had the experience of playing in West Asia in the Asian Champions League, so the player level is still relatively experienced in overcoming such a disadvantage of the away field.
But it's a very different story at the managerial level - 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 such a big game, and it is now 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 increases 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-team tournament matches, the national football team because of the seeding, in terms of scheduling experienced away from home, only one match with Guam at home, with the Philippines, Syria, two home group exit rivals, all of which are on the road.
Originally, for the second phase of the tournament, the National Football League was supposed to have three home matches, which is what the team should normally be guaranteed.
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 infinitely more difficult. Despite the addition of naturalized players, the strength of the national football team has not been qualitatively improved in this year, want to ensure that the entry into the Top 12, the national football team in the second phase of the four games bottom line is to get 10 points, the best is to take all the 12 points.
If by virtue of the advantages of home timing, geographical and human, the national football team has a high probability of finally accomplishing the goal - the fans for the national football team's support has been revealed in the game with Guam, and the various guarantees of the home game, but also to ensure that the national football team every preparation day in an orderly manner.
Li Tie said right before the pre-game conference against Guam, "This time the security team, it's the best I've experienced."
