Tomorrow's showdown: Jankovic lays out new lineup as national soccer team prepares for Vietnam friendly
The night is low, and the Chinese men's soccer team is about to face Vietnam in an international friendly tomorrow night, a match that is seen as a revenge punch for last year's preliminaries loss on the road.
Looking back at the two warm-up matches last month, the performance of the national soccer team was not satisfactory, shaking hands with Malaysia 1-1 and losing 0-1 against Syria. This series of results not only angered many fans, but also prompted coach Jankovic determined to remodel the national football squad. Therefore, in the match against Vietnam, Jankovic will not hesitate to send a brand new starting lineup.
In the goalkeeper position, Yan Junling's performance in the past two years is slightly mediocre, a little careless, the opponent's shot can go through the door. Fans therefore jokingly called him "shot dead". Last year, Yan Junling conceded three goals in a row in the preliminaries away to Vietnam, and the psychological shadow is hard to erase. This time against Vietnam, Jankovic may abandon Yan Junling and use Wang Dalei, who has been in hot form this season, as the starting goalkeeper.
As for the backline, with the age of years, Li Lei's condition has declined sharply. In this training session of the national soccer team, Jankovic deliberately called up Liu Yang of the national soccer team for the Asian Games, with the intention of correcting him as the starting left back. The right back will be between He Yupeng and Ye Lijiang.
With two center backs, Zhang Linmiao and Zhu Chenjie, out due to injuries, naturalized player Jiang Guangtai and Shenhua youngster Jiang Shenglong will fill the starting center back positions. This new center back pair needs to show tacit understanding and stability in the game.
In the midfield, Li Ke and Wu Xi will continue to play as the double back, and Dai Weijun will play as the front. As the core of the team's offense, Dai Weijun's performance will have a direct impact on the national football team's offensive firepower.
In the forward line, Tan Long will replace Ackerson as the starting center forward, while Wu Lei and Xie Pengfei will play as the left and right wingers. Tan Long had a great performance in the Asian Games and his height and header advantage will be even more obvious against an opponent like Vietnam.
On the bench, Wei Shihao, Fang Hao and other good attackers are on standby. Once the national football team's offense is blocked, Jankovic will send them on the field to impact the Vietnamese defense with their speed and breakthrough ability.
The match between the national soccer team and Vietnam will be broadcast live on CCTV5, the CCTV sports channel, and fans can watch the highly anticipated showdown on TV. The warriors of the national soccer team will have to go all out for a brilliant victory at home to wash away the shame of losing on the road in the last World Qualifier.
