Not only that, but Antonio Puche, the head coach of the U21 Spanish national team, seems to be the favorite to succeed him. As we all know, China's U21 national soccer team will be committed to the seventh U23 Asian Cup qualifier in August next year, which will give Antonio time to take over the coaching whip of the national team. It is also worth mentioning that the CFA attaches great importance to Antonio, otherwise it would not have invited him again. His coaching performance is also evident to all, especially in last year's U20 Asian Cup, the U20 national football team under his wise leadership successfully among the top eight. Not to mention, the player Baiheilamu was trained by Antonio. Antonio has been deeply involved in Chinese soccer in recent years and knows the current situation of men's soccer in China very well. Therefore, it is the right time for him to take the helm of the national soccer team.
Although the first two rounds of the tournament have come to an end, the public's anger has not yet subsided. Even retired national team players have expressed their dissatisfaction. Xu Yunlong was blunt: "Before the match, we expected to lose by a small margin, but the process was unexpected. If the Chinese team had shown resilience against Saudi Arabia, the score of the first match would not have been as bad as 0-7. Now that we've moved on from the technical and tactical aspects of evaluating this team, the primary focus is on the team's spirit. In the first match, the players did not suffer from cramps in 70 minutes. As for whether to replace the coach, that is the choice of the Football Association, at present any statement will not help, of course, there must be problems. Xu Yunlong's words do reveal some of the problems of the national football team.
However, analysts pointed out that the players' attitude towards the game was really open to question, despite the large gap in strength that existed in the loss to Japan in the first game. In the second game, the national soccer team suddenly slowed down the pace of the game after taking the lead, and even more than one man at half-time failed to turn the situation around, eventually losing to Saudi Arabia unfortunately. Of course, these two games provoked anger, but the main responsibility for the situation should be attributed to Ivankovic. His choice of personnel and tactics has been widely questioned, and the players bear no small part of the blame.
