In the just-announced World Cup qualifying group draw, China's national soccer team was unlucky to fall into Group C, which will play with South Korea, Thailand and other powerhouses, as well as face the challenge of the winner of Guam and Singapore.
The competition in this group is fierce, but it is also pregnant with opportunities for Chinese soccer to break through. Looking back at the historical record, the national soccer team has played against South Korea 29 times and won only 2 matches, with a win rate as low as 6.9%. However, this time, the possibility of breaking the deadlock should not be underestimated. The Korean media's contempt for the national soccer team may instead be an opportunity for us to win. Not only do we have good news, but our opponents for the warm-up matches are almost locked in.
The national soccer team is expected to play two consecutive matches against each other in Malaysia from August to September. The new round of world qualifiers will kick off in November. The first opponents are Thailand and South Korea, and the next challenge is to deal with the winners of Singapore and Guam. The performance of the first two games will greatly influence the direction of the preliminaries, and if they can score, or even win, in Korea, the road to qualification will be relatively smooth.
For this reason, the national football team has begun to select the warm-up opponents, one of which has already been determined, while the other is still in flux. The reason for this is that two of the original opponents have withdrawn, and coach Jankovic has not been too picky about this. When we had planned to choose weak teams like Myanmar and Palestine, Jankovic said that he needed more than strong opponents. However, the soccer association contacted the Canadian and Panamanian soccer associations, but the others opted out due to difficulties in coming to China in September.
Faced with this turn of events, we had no choice but to play two warm-up matches in Malaysia. While making sure not to cause player fatigue, we also found relatively weak opponents. In addition, Malaysia and Thailand have similar strengths, and by playing consecutive matches against each other, we simulated the first match against Thailand.
In the upcoming group stage of the World Qualifier, the first opponent of the national soccer team is none other than Thailand, and it will be played at home. As long as they get Thailand first, the rest of the journey will be smoother. Although Canada and Panama were invited to the tournament, their absence will be an advantage. By warming up with Malaysia, the morale of the national football team will be boosted, and the momentum of consecutive victories will also inject confidence into the preparation for the World Qualification Tournament.
