On the 26th, our new men's soccer team played a crucial second warm-up match against the New Zealand national team in Wellington. Despite Barton's equalizer in the closing stages of the match, the national team suffered a 1-2 defeat. Looking back at the previous 23rd Auckland match, the two sides exchanged 0-0 draws, with the national team's trip to New Zealand ending in a draw and a defeat. 99-year-old Chinese U24 Asian Games team even suffered two consecutive defeats, losing to New Zealand's U22 national Olympic team by 0-2 and 1-2.
Prior to the match, head coach Jankovic made minor changes to the starting lineup, drafting Asian Games' Wu Shao Cong into the national team on an emergency basis to form a center back partnership with Zhu Chenjie. In the first half, Zhu Chenjie inadvertently made an own goal in a free kick clearance, and New Zealand took a 1-0 lead. In the 80th minute, the New Zealand team extended the score to 2-0 through tacit cooperation. in the extra time, Sun Guowen crossed from the right road, and Barton's header broke the goal for the national football team to equalize a goal.
After the match, Yankovic said: "New Zealand's performance deserved the victory, while our team's performance in the first half was not satisfactory, the loss is reasonable. The reason we didn't make any significant changes to the lineup this time is that we hope to observe the physical exertion of the players in three consecutive days of matches. After all, we may face the challenge of playing three or four consecutive days in the future."
Jankovic believes that warming up against a physical, impactful and confrontational side like New Zealand will be beneficial for team building. "Our goal is to reach the World Cup and with the World Cup qualifiers coming up, I need to find 25 players who can play consistently. Although we didn't win on this trip to New Zealand, I think we have achieved our desired goal. Of course, no coach likes to lose."
Despite the poor results of the new national football team's debut, the team's spirit and style has been tested, and the moment of backwardness is still all-out attack, and strive to break the door. Many fans also believe that it is unrealistic at this stage to expect a change of coach to quickly change the status quo, the new face of the national football team is full of vigor, the future is expected to solidify the status of the national team.
As planned, the national team and the Asian Games will return on the 27th and then disband and the players will return to their clubs to prepare for the new league season. Yankovic revealed that after the return, his first priority will be to examine the league and prepare for the training in June. The national team will then host two warm-up matches in China against opponents yet to be determined.
