The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has recently appointed Ivanovic as the coach of the national soccer team. The Daily News commented that it would be inappropriate to hastily define Ivankovic as "a familiar face in Chinese soccer".
It's been more than a decade since Ivankovic was last involved in Chinese soccer. In that time, the Chinese soccer roster has changed several times. The players he has no connection with were all born after 1993, and even if he has studied Chinese soccer, he only knows a few of the Chinese internationals from the last Top 12 tournament. Therefore, it seems too early to label Ivankovic as "familiar with Chinese soccer".
The national soccer team will start its preparation for the two matches against Singapore on March 11th. The first match will be played away from home on March 21, leaving new coach Ivankovic with only 10 days to prepare for the match. The second match will be held at home in Tianjin on March 26, again meaning that preparation time is tight. For Ivankovic and his coaching team, the first challenge will be to quickly adapt and improve the team's performance. At the same time, getting to grips with the abilities of the national team's players will be their second biggest challenge.
The first half of the Chinese Super League season featured two 18-day breaks, which provided plenty of time for the national team to train and play. But with Jankovic's demise after the Asian Cup, the new head coach will need to turn the Chinese team around in just over a month, which will undoubtedly be the third biggest test for him.
