After a day's rest, the Chinese men's football team arrived in Sharjah on the night of March 17 and stepped into the Khalid bin Mohammed Stadium to kick off their first training session there. It was reported that naturalized player Jiang Guangtai, who arrived in Dubai as early as March 4, joined the team for the joint training. The only absentee was injured international defender Gao Junyi.
The Chinese team arrived in Dubai, UAE on March 17 local time and immediately took a bus to their hotel in Sharjah. Despite flight delays that caused them to arrive late at night, the players quickly rested and adjusted to the time difference.
In order to ensure the health and safety of the members of the national football team and the U23 national football delegation, the CFA has asked all members to strictly observe the closed-loop epidemic prevention measures during their stay in the UAE. The two teams stayed in the same hotel but were arranged on different floors. Their first training sessions in Sharjah took place on the afternoon and evening of the 18th local time respectively.
The national soccer team departed from their hotel at 6:30 p.m. local time and began training at 7 p.m. sharp. The training ground was the same Khalid bin Mohammed Stadium where they had previously prepared for some of their home matches in the Round of 12, and is also the home ground of Sharjah Sharon U21s who play in the national league.
As the team has just arrived in Sharjah for only one day, the first practice was mainly focused on physical recovery. It is worth noting that naturalized player Jiang Guangtai arrived in Sharjah from Dubai at noon on the 18th local time to join the team. It is understood that Jiang Guangtai arrived in Dubai early on March 4, received all the physical tests and passed successfully. In the 48 hours before the collection of the national team, he conducted two consecutive nucleic acid test, the test results show normal before going to the national team premises.
Unlike the four naturalized players who are in Brazil, Jiang Guangtai is of a moderate age and is also favored by the national team. His desire to represent the national soccer team was overflowing. At the practice site, he repeatedly took the initiative to greet his teammates and coaches, and frequently communicated with Dai Weijun, who is fluent in English.
The national soccer team trained as usual in the area, opening up only the first 15 minutes at a time to the media. After some stretching on the yoga mats, the players quickly moved on to the technical and tactical drills. A total of 23 players were present at the training, with the absence of defender Gao Zhunyi, who continued to adjust his body in the hotel.
