As we enter November, the Chinese soccer world is set for a heated Asian World Cup qualifying campaign, followed by the January 2024 Asian Cup. For the Chinese men's soccer team, this flurry of events presents both challenges and opportunities. Just in September, we will have two important international warm-up matches, one against Malaysia, which will be beneficial for the young players to gain experience, as well as an effective simulation of the warm-up matches with the upcoming qualifiers and the Asian Cup.
Currently ranked 79th in the world and 11th in Asia, the Chinese men's soccer team will play the third- and fourth-ranked teams in the preliminaries, and the dawn of victory seems to be close at hand. Meanwhile, our opponents - Qatar, Lebanon and Tajikistan - will also be group opponents in the Asian Cup, and such a preliminaries will undoubtedly provide us with the perfect opportunity to simulate the intense confrontations of the Asian Cup. the warm-up matches in September were carefully prepared to simulate the preliminaries in November.
In the warm-up matches, the match with Malaysia has been decided, and the other opponent will most likely come from the strongest teams in Europe or Africa, which the Chinese men's soccer team is eager to use to improve their fighting strength. Yankovic's coaching style is known for high intensity training and fierce confrontation, which is crucial to improve the national team's combat effectiveness.
In the national football team's lineup, Wu Lei, Ekerson and Lin Liangming will form the attacking line trident. In the midfield, Wu Xi's injury has left Jankovic in dire need of finding a suitable midfielder in the league. Young talents such as Hu Jinghang, Yan Dinghao and Duan Liuyu are expected to be selected for the national team, while Yang Liyu's tacit understanding with Wei Shihao and Ekerson cannot be ignored. Yankovic has injected new energy into the national team with his unique perspective of selecting players in the league.
In September's warm-up matches, the national soccer team will practice in depth the tactical lineups laid out by Jankovic and be fully prepared for the first phase of the World Qualification Tournament in November. Facing the third and fourth opponents in Asia, Tajikistan and Lebanon will be our rivals in the Asian Cup in early 2024. As long as we give our best, the hope of victory is still within our grasp. And the warm-up matches in September are meant to simulate this crucial showdown.
The increase in the number of places for the next World Cup in the Asian region has given us confidence in storming into the World Cup. The FA has been actively working on squad renewal. The opponents for the next World Cup and Asian Cup are not strong, and the national soccer team is expected to send a relatively young squad to participate. Through the pre-tournament warm-up matches to enhance the strength, we have reason to believe that the national football team will usher in its own glory in the next World Qualifier and Asian Cup.
