On July 27th, the Chinese soccer world was greeted with breaking news: the draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers was unveiled in Kuala Lumpur, and the Chinese national soccer team had the misfortune of being placed in Group C, alongside South Korea, Thailand, and the winners of Singapore or Guam. This is undoubtedly a heavy blow for national team head coach Jankovic.
Given China's poor performance in the last World Cup qualifiers and its failure to accumulate enough points in warm-up matches, it was ranked 11th in Asia and failed to qualify for seeding. As a result, China could only participate in the draw as a second-tier team and ended up in the same group as South Korea, Thailand and the winners of Singapore and Guam. As we all know, the national team had overcome the psychological barrier against South Korea during Gao Hongbo's tenure, but there was a clear power gap with the South Koreans. South Korea specializes in the physical warfare and aggressive hustle advocated by Jankovic, so China can only aim to fight for second place in the group.
However, Thailand's strength has improved significantly over the past two years. The 1-5 defeat is still fresh in the minds of fans. In addition, the Chinese team reached an all-time low when they defeated Vietnam in the last World Cup qualification. Nonetheless, there are still doubts about the Chinese team against Thailand. However, Guam and Singapore obviously cannot pose a threat to the national team. Therefore, being grouped with South Korea and Thailand, it is widely believed that China has drawn the lower draw.
For the situation of the national team, South Korea and Thailand in the same group, reporter Song Chengliang bluntly said that such a death group almost concentrates the three or four strongest teams. The Chinese team continued the tradition of drawing the death group in the draw of teams at all levels. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was quick to respond to this. Although Song Chengliang did not disclose the specifics, the situation not only had a huge impact on national team players such as Wu Lei and Ekson, but also shocked Gao Hongbo, who is in charge of the national team. Fans have also expressed their displeasure at the situation.
Some fans said, "For the national team, as long as there are two teams in the group, it is a group of death. What's the point of participating in the World Cup if you can't stand up to an opponent like Thailand? The purpose of participating in the World Cup is to raise the level of the team, but it is unacceptable that the team can't even beat Thailand! A fan said, "A strong team has an easy time no matter which group they are drawn into. Without strength, any group is a group of death. There is no other way but to fight hard. And, if you can't finish second in this group, what reason is there to participate in the World Cup?"
Of course, there are also fans who are encouraging: "We are confident! With Wu Lei in great form, and naturalized players Eckerson, Fernando and Li Ke performing equally well, we have the strength to compete with Thailand! Remember when Gao Hongbo led Jiangsu to victory over South Korea, even with only half a team, and with Jankovic able to reuse naturalized players and bring back Luo Guofu and Alan, we could still score against South Korea!"
