With the penultimate round of the Qatar World Qualifier Asian Zone 12 Championship approaching in late March, the Chinese men's football team gathered in Haikou City on March 3 in an emergency to prepare for battle. It is reported that due to the poor performance of the first two rounds of the tournament, the coaching team will focus on the quality of training in this cycle of camp, high-intensity training will become the norm. In order to test the results of training and warm up for the upcoming western campaign, the team plans to conduct adaptive warm-ups with Chinese Super League powerhouse Changchun Yatai on March 9, 12 and 15, respectively, as well as the U23 national football team, which is preparing for the same period in Haikou.
By the evening of March 3, 20 international players had arrived in Haikou to report. Naturalized players such as Alan, Luo Guofu, Fernando, Eckerson, Jiang Guangtai and Li Lei, who plays for Grasshopper in Switzerland, and 6 others are unable to participate in the training due to being overseas. The remaining 13 international players will be delayed due to the epidemic and are expected to arrive on March 6 at the latest.
The coaching team did not schedule training on March 3, given that the current training period follows the end of the last closed training period. However, in view of the team's poor performance in the first two rounds of the 12-team tournament, especially in the tragic defeat on the road to Vietnam, the coaching team plans to further strengthen the quality of training in this cycle of camps, a variety of forms and intensity of training will be throughout.
It is particularly worth mentioning that this period of the national football team training in Haikou open to the media is scheduled for March 14 to 16, that is, the last few days of training, each open time is limited to less than 20 minutes. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that "the performance of the first few games is really unsatisfactory, the team obviously needs to focus on improving the quality of training, so that the players can train at ease."
The two-week training in Haikou is indispensable for practical exercises. It is reported that, taking into account part of the professional club teams and U23 national football team also recently in Haikou to prepare for the game, the coaching team decided to select some of the teams as warm-up opponents. According to the plan, the Chinese team will be March 9, 12, 15, three teaching games, the first opponent has been initially determined to be Changchun Yatai team.
It is worth mentioning that Chen Yang, the current head coach of the Yatai team, was once a key member of the national soccer team's assistant coaching team. During the Shanghai training in January this year, Chen Yang led the red team to prepare and play. From this point of view, he knows the needs of the national football team at the technical and tactical level, Yatai team can naturally play the role of "coaching".
Another team warming up with the national football team is the U23 national football team of the 1999 age group, which will be going to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the international invitational tournament "Dubai Cup". Due to the epidemic, this team has not participated in any international matches for more than two years. Warming up with the national soccer team is crucial to their preparation before returning to the international arena. For Li Xiaopeng, the head coach of the national football team, this is an opportunity to test the results of training, but also to tap more young players with potential.
It is reported that the national football team and the U23 national football team are likely to play two consecutive warm-up matches on the 12th and 15th. Li Xiaopeng coaching team will determine the main lineup for the trip to the United Arab Emirates based on the specifics of the training and the three warm-up matches.
For the six players who are currently overseas, the attitude of the national football coaching team is that all of them will be drafted as far as possible as long as their physical condition allows. According to the training notice, they should arrive in the UAE on March 17th local time to join the team. The time for the national football team and the U23 national football team to travel to Dubai is also scheduled for the same day.
