It should not be overlooked that the overall technical and tactical performance of our national team against Oman and Australia in November last year was significantly better than in the first four Top 12 matches. It should be noted that these four matches were a challenge for the national football team to fight for points, but also served as a warm-up.In 2021, the national football team did not play any official World A matches, let alone high-quality warm-up matches, in addition to the Top 40 tournament matches in June, which had far-reaching effects on the construction of the national football team.
As we all know, since the outbreak in early 2020, China and Australia are the only two teams in the Top 12 that have not played a world warm-up match. Please refer to the table below (data as of November 2021, Round 6 of the Top 12):
Many people compare the number of gold medals won by our sports delegation at the Tokyo Olympics with the performance of the national soccer team, and believe that the national soccer team's failure to participate in warm-up matches is just an excuse. However, taking our women's volleyball team, the benchmark of our sports world, as an example, it suffered a historic fiasco at the Tokyo Olympics and could not even advance to the group stage. Both the outgoing head coach, Lang Ping, and the captain of the team, Zhu Ting, when reviewing the women's volleyball team's loss, first mentioned that they did not participate in high-level world tournaments before the Olympics!
It is undeniable that our Olympic team has made brilliant achievements and our athletes have worked hard, but we should also see that under the epidemic, most of our gold medal-winning events were non-physical contact or weakly confrontational events. While athletes from other countries and regions were unable to conduct normal training during the epidemic, our athletes were able to prepare for the games unaffected. However, in the three major sports or other sports with physical contact and confrontation, our team has made little progress. What is the reason? Because it is simply impossible to achieve the desired results behind closed doors.
China's men's soccer team in the epidemic during the number of training, but the original technical and tactical level is not high, facing the strength of their opponents in the final 12 far more than their own, on what basis can achieve victory? Even with the guidance of a world-class coach like Lippi and Scolari, will it be possible to achieve better results than now? Soccer does not believe in assumptions, not to mention if, the national football team should not hope in the so-called assumptions and if.
Inside rolls will only take the national soccer team farther and farther away
For the new head coach of the national football team, Li Xiaopeng, he faces a situation and difficulty far beyond his predecessor Li Tie. Not to mention the personnel problems, just in terms of preparation time, when the opponent is in a break or a week of normal league rhythm, our players in the completion of three days a round of intensive schedule, physically and mentally exhausted to report to the national football team. As a new coach, he urgently needs to solve the teething problems, and the best way to do so is to organize high-level warm-up matches. This is also a clear goal of Li Xiaopeng after taking office, that is, to organize at least two high-level warm-up matches before facing the Japanese team.
Due to the many constraints imposed on the management, the previous CFA would have been powerless to solve the problem, so the national football team could only have symbolic warm-ups with the Chinese Super League clubs. The result is self-evident, as Niu Qun and Feng Gong satirized in their comedy, "The more you play chess, the more you stink." Although the Chinese football team can win in such warm-up matches, it is impossible to raise the level. The only way to learn is to play against the best.
The Football Association, as a community organization, is overwhelmed by many matters. Now, after the intervention of the higher management, although the epidemic prevention is still the primary task, but can mobilize resources far more than the association organization, can really help the national football team to solve this urgent problem?
In the past December, for example, the national football team's rivals Vietnam participated in the Southeast Asian Championship, while Oman and Saudi Arabia took part in the FIFA Arab Cup, and these matches were the best warm-up for these three opponents to prepare for the following four rounds of the 12-team tournament! Vietnam have played 6 matches, Oman have played 4 matches to get out of their group and Saudi Arabia have played 3 matches to get eliminated from their group. Regardless of the number of matches, the assistance of the warm-up matches for the players and the team may show later in the round of 12.
In contrast, what makes our national soccer team compete with these opponents? How can they be expected to win or even get out of the tournament? This is why there is more important work to be done than "tattoos", and the national soccer team needs real help.
Appendix: List of World Warm-up matches for the Big 12 teams after the outbreak
Japanese team
2020.10.09 Utrecht, Netherlands Japan vs Cameroon 0-0 Draw
2020.10.13 Utrecht, Netherlands Japan vs Cote d'Ivoire 1-0 win
2020.11.13 Graz, Austria Japan vs Panama 1-0 Win
2020.11.17 Graz, Austria Japan vs Mexico 0-2 Loss
2021.03.25 Yokohama, Japan Japan vs Korea 3-0 win
2021.06.03 Japan Hokkaido 队 vs Japan U24 3比0胜
2021.06.11 Kobe, Japan Japan vs Serbia 1-0 win
[Total: 7 wins, 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, 6 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss in Pure A.]
Saudi Arabia
2020.11.14 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia vs Jamaica 3-0 win
2020.11.17 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia vs Jamaica 1-2 loss
2021.03.25 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia vs Kuwait 1-0 win
[Total: 2 wins and 1 loss in 3 matches]
Omani team
2021.03.20 Dubai, UAE Oman vs Jordan 0-0 Draw
2021.03.25 Dubai, UAE Oman vs India 1-1 Draw
2021.05.25 Dubai, UAE Oman vs Thailand 1-0 win
2021.05.29 Dubai, UAE Oman vs Indonesia 3-1 win
2021.06.20 Doha, Qatar Oman vs Somalia 2-1 win
2021.08.11 Belgrade Oman vs. Kolubara Srpska Superliga 4-0 win
2021.08.15 Belgrade Oman vs Qatar Sports 1-0 win
2021.08.19 Belgrade Oman vs. Subotica Srpska Superliga 3-0 win
2021.08.24 Belgrade Oman vs. Vodovac Srpska Super League 2-0 win
2021.09.26 Doha, Qatar Oman vs Nepal 7-2 win
2021.09.30 Doha, Qatar Oman vs Qatar Military 2-1 win
[Total: 9 wins and 2 draws in 11 matches, 4 wins and 2 draws in 6 matches in Pure A.]
Vietnamese team
2021.05.31 Sharjah, UAE Vietnam vs Jordan 1-1 Draw
[Total: 1 battle, 1 draw]
Iranian team
2020.10.08 Uzbekistan Tashkent Iran vs Uzbekistan 1-0 win
2020.11.12 Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo Iran vs Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 win
2021.03.30 Tehran, Iran Iran vs Syria 3-0 win
[Total: 3 wins in 3 battles]
Korean team
2020.11.14 Vienna, Austria South Korea vs Mexico 2-3 loss
2020.11.17 Maria, Austria South Korea vs Qatar 2-1 win
2021.03.25 Yokohama, Japan Korea vs Japan 0-3 Losses
[Overall record: 1 win and 2 losses in 3 matches]
UAE team
2020.10.12 Dubai, UAE UAE vs Uzbekistan 1-2 loss
2020.11.12 Dubai, UAE UAE vs Tajiks 3-2 win
2020.11.16 Dubai, UAE UAE vs Bahrain 1-3 loss
2021.01.12 Dubai, UAE UAE vs Iraq 0-0 Draw
2021.03.29 Dubai, UAE UAE vs India 6-0 win
2020.05.24 Dubai, UAE UAE vs Jordan 5-1 win
[Total: 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in 6 matches]
Team Lebanon
2020.11.12 Dubai, UAE Lebanon vs Bahrain 1-3 loss
2021.03.24 Dubai, UAE Lebanon vs Jordan 0-1 loss
2021.03.29 Dubai, UAE Lebanon vs Kuwait 1-1 Draw
2021.06.23 Doha, Qatar Lebanon vs Djibouti 1-0 win
2021.08.16 Antalya, Turkey Lebanon vs Antalya Sport 0-0 Draw
2021.08.18 Antalya, Turkey Lebanon vs. Al-Shamal, Qatar 0-1 loss
2021.08.27 Dubai, UAE Lebanon vs Fujairah, UAE 2-0 win
[Total: 7 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in Pure A.]
Iraqi team
2020.11.12 Dubai, UAE Iraq vs Jordan 0-0 Draw
2020.11.17 Dubai, UAE Iraq vs Uzbekistan 2-1 win
2021.01.12 Dubai, UAE Iraq vs UAE 0-0 Draw
2021.01.27 Basra, Iraq Iraq vs Kuwait 2-1 win
2021.03.39 Uzbekistan Tashkent Iraq vs Uzbekistan 1-0 win
2021.05.24 Basra, Iraq Iraq vs Tajiks 0-0 Draw
2021.05.29 Basra, Iraq Iraq vs Nepal 6-2 win
2021.08.13 Marbella, Spain Iraq vs Atletico Baleares Liga B 0-0 Draw
2021.08.15 Marbella, Spain Iraq vs Real Linense, Liga B 0-0 Draw
2021.08.20 Antalya, Turkey Iraq vs. Agrispor, Turkish C 6-0 win
2021.08.24 Antalya, Turkey Iraq vs Turkish Super League Kayserispor 1-1 draw
[Total: 5 wins and 6 draws in 11 matches, 4 wins and 3 draws in 7 matches in Pure A.]
Syrian team
2020.11.12 Sharjah, UAE Syria vs Uzbekistan 1-0 Win
2020.11.16 Sharjah, UAE Syria vs Jordan 0-1 Loss
2021.03.25 Bahrain Rifa Syria vs Bahrain 1-3 loss
2021.03.30 Tehran, Iran Syria vs Iran 0-3 loss
2021.08.26 Doha, Qatar Syria vs Algeria 1-2 loss
2021.09.30 Sharjah, UAE Syria vs. our team 1-1 draw (non-A match)
[Overall record: 6 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses, 5 wins, 4 losses in Pure A matches.]
