In the pipeline, China's men's soccer team plans to assemble around August 17 to be fully prepared for the Qatar World Cup Asian qualifying round of 12, which kicks off on September 2nd. The key aim of the coaching team to extend the preparation cycle is to ensure that the team will be able to participate in several high-level international warm-up matches before the start of the 12-team tournament as a way to enhance the preparation effect, the Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter revealed.
Given the special nature of the 12-team tournament and the intensity of the competition, our team's preparation strategy has focused on opponents not in the same group. However, due to the impact of the epidemic as well as the domestic and international epidemic prevention policies, the national football team will perhaps continue to train and live in a relatively closed group during the period from mid-August to November 16, when the first six rounds of the Top 12 will be completed. As a result, the physical and mental challenges of the 12-team tournament for the entire team, as well as for the FA's operational team personnel, will be unprecedented.
Despite the national soccer team entering the Round of 12 with four consecutive victories in the Top 40, the only truly hard-fought match in the second half of the tournament's four matches was the final-round showdown with Syria. It is also the only matchup at the top Asian level that the national football team has been involved in in the last two years since November 2019, when it concluded the first round of the 40-team tournament.
According to the current situation, the AFC may comply with the wishes of the WFC and the sponsors and keep the home and away match system of the 12-team tournament unchanged. With the world and domestic epidemic prevention situation still severe, and the epidemic prevention policies and harsh international travel conditions of countries (regions) around the world, the national football team is afraid that it will be difficult to invite teams from other countries to warm up in China in the next six months. In other words, the national football team may need to go out of the country if it wants to realize a high-quality warm-up.
It is worth mentioning that if the Football Association can contact a suitable opponent for the national football team, then the national football team does not rule out the completion of the domestic training in late August, visit to participate in warm-up matches and prepare for the first round of September 2, the first round of the 12-team away tournament. This mode of training is likely to run through the entire process of the 12-team tournament. Extending the pre-match training time actually creates conditions for the team to warm up internationally in advance.
In accordance with the usual practice, the national football team to determine the warm-up opponent is unlikely to be the same group of opponents in the 12 strong, so the main goal will focus on the other group of six teams. If affected by the epidemic and other factors, these teams can not warm up with the national football team, then the Football Association will consider turning to the same group of opponents with the national football team with similar technical and tactical style of Asian teams.
The schedule shows that the national football team will participate in the first six rounds of the 12-team tournament in September, October and November this year. The national footballers will not be able to return to their clubs for the AFC Cup during this period, and may even be unable to reunite with their families as they continue to train and reside collectively throughout the nearly four-month cycle of preparation and competition for the Top 12. The FA will also strive for favorable match conditions as much as possible based on the results of the 12-team tournament, such as communicating with other member associations to switch some of the national football team's home and away matches in order to allow the national football team to travel and prepare for the tournament.
