Hot Focus 1: National Football Team Prepares for World Cup, Warm-up Opponents Revealed. 2026 Asian Cup Qualifiers 36 Groups Revealed, China's Men's Football Team is in the same group with South Korea, Thailand and Singapore/Guam. According to Soccer Daily, in preparation for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, the national football team is planning to play two warm-up matches against Syria and Malaysia in September. in October, the national football team will play a warm-up match against Uzbekistan, and the other opponent is still under discussion. With the announcement of the list of opponents for the warm-up matches, the World Cup preparations for the national football team have officially opened. Despite the lack of confidence of the fans in the national soccer team to enter the World Cup, the national soccer team's game is still the worry in the hearts of the fans. Many fans, including editors, even if the national football team is not performing well, it is difficult to part with their attention.
Hot Focus 2: Chinese Super League dominant Wuhan Sanzhen foreigner Malcolm set another record. In the 19th round of the Chinese Super League, Wuhan Sanzhen narrowly beat Qingdao Hainiu 1-0 at home. Malcolm, who has just returned to the team, had an outstanding performance, and he shot 12 times in this game, which set a new high for the number of shots on goal in a single league game by any player this season, and also the second highest number of shots on goal in a single Chinese Super League game by an individual. Recall that in October 2019, Malcolm also shot foot 13 times in Hebei's match against Guangzhou. After the match, Wuhan Sanzhen's coach spoke highly of Malcolm's performance and praised him in a press conference for his excellent form after keeping up his intense training with the Saudi team. With his physical and height advantage, Malcolm created a great threat for Wuhan Sanzhen in the match and became the key to his team's victory.
Hot Focus 3: Referee Manning's controversial penalty draws hot debate again. In the match between Beijing Guoan and Shandong Taishan, Guoan lost 0:3. After the game, Guoan head coach Suarez questioned referee Manning's penalty. Suarez said he did not want to make excuses for his team's loss, but had questions about some of the set-piece penalties and penalty kicks awarded in the match. It is worth noting that this is not the first time this year that Manning has been questioned in the Chinese Super League. Previously, Wei Shihao was red-carded for questioning Manning's decisions, and Nantong Zhiyun's good goal was also questioned. As a famous referee in the Chinese league, Manning needs to improve his professionalism and reduce the number of controversial calls. This may also be one of the reasons why he can only appear in the Qatar World Cup as a fourth official instead of enforcing matches as a referee.
Hot Focus 4: Guoan player Fang Hao wore a Taishan jersey to thank the controversy. At the end of the match between Guoan and Shandong Taishan, Fang Hao, a striker who transferred to Guoan from Taishan, wore a Taishan jersey to thank the fans, which triggered the dissatisfaction of Guoan fans. Fang Hao is from Luneng's youth team and played three games for Taishan last season. This season, Fang Hao played 11 games for Guoan, including three starts, contributing two goals. Although Fang Hao's move made Guoan fans feel uncomfortable, his gratitude to Taishan club and fans was overwhelming. From this perspective, young Fang Hao is still a good player who knows how to be grateful.
