Soccer Daily is reporting that China's national soccer team will meet Malaysia and Syria in September's international tournament, who have strong naturalized player lineups. Especially the Syrian team, whose composition of overseas players accounted for a considerable proportion of the team.
The head of the Malaysian team, Korean-born coach Kim Judge Gon, has a deep understanding of the Chinese soccer scene. For this tournament, he has selected 26 players, half of which are naturalized, including seven Chinese as well as players from Australia, England and Sweden, and three South American non-blood naturalized players. Compared with the past, the overall strength of the team has been significantly enhanced.
Looking back at last year's King's Cup in Thailand, Malaysia drew with Thailand and Tajikistan before losing on penalties to Tajikistan in the final; Thailand won the semi-final of the South East Asia Cup earlier this year by just one goal. Since March, Malaysia has beaten Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, China in warm-up matches, winning four consecutive games. On August 29th, the team started to prepare for the match, and Kim Jong-kun said that they will abandon the strategy of defense first and try to win with attacking soccer. The strength of naturalized players will play a key role in the game. Kim emphasized that a win on the road will help the team make a breakthrough in the Asian Cup.
The Syrian team, on the other hand, is coached by the famous Argentine coach Cooper. He attaches great importance to this warm-up match. However, Syria did not perform well in March and June, losing 0-1 to Bahrain and Vietnam respectively. Cooper discarded five international players in this roster, including naturalized midfielder Aish, who joined Seoul at the beginning of the year. Nagar, an Australian-born naturalized striker, has yet to find a new home since his release from his contract with Australian Super MacArthur. Habouni, a Canadian-born mixed-race center back, trained for the Canadian national team but eventually chose to play for Syria. He currently plays for Magdeburg II in Germany's lower league and has yet to earn Cooper's trust. Also failing to make the cut are Carver, Amin, and strikers Babouri and Svavarra, who have represented Canada's U23 national team.
Syria's 24-man roster includes 10 players from the domestic league, but the team has had to rely more on overseas players as the new season has been delayed from Aug. 25 to Sept. 22, making it difficult to guarantee the form of domestic players. Among the overseas players, right back Weiss is the only one playing in a secondary European league. Almost all of the other 13 players play in West Asia, playing for teams in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE and Qatar. Among them, veteran midfielder Mawas, who plays for the Iraqi Air Force, and veteran striker Soma, who recently moved to the Qatari Arabs, are strong. Also of note is efficient goalscorer Hribin, who played for Dubai Young Nationals last season. Similar to Nagar, they failed to make the cut as they have not found a new team.
