On May 27, the AFC released a heavy news, in order to maintain the fairness of the tournament, it announced that all the results of the group stage of the 40-team tournament in which the North Korean team participated would be invalidated. At the same time, after the end of the 40-team tournament, the results of the matches between the second and fifth-place teams in Groups A to G will also be ignored, which means that on May 30th, even if the Chinese team wins against Guam, goal difference will no longer be key. Against this backdrop, the question of whether national soccer coach Li Tie needs to field the strongest possible lineup for the 30th has become a matter for deeper reflection.
Points rule change as national soccer team strives to win it all
Currently, China is second in Group A with 7 points from 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, with a goal difference of 11, the fewest points among the 8 groups. However, due to the fact that they have played one less game, if the 3 points from the Guam game are excluded, China's actual points are only 4 points. The goal difference of 11 is the second highest among the 8 groups, behind Kuwait's 14, but 7 of them are from Guam. If the Guam match is excluded, China's goal difference will shrink to four.
In this situation, China's June 3 match against the Maldives and June 9 match against the Philippines are especially crucial. For China to advance to the second place in the group, they must win all of these two matches, and the effective points will rise to 10 points. The final match against Syria, who advanced early, will give China the initiative to take the line. If they fail to beat the Philippines at home, the Chinese team will be in a passive situation and will have to rely on other teams in the group.
Compared to the last World Qualifier, five of the eight second teams in this tournament can advance to the Round of 12. As long as the national football team plays stably, it is not difficult to get out of the line in general.
Li Tie faces dilemma in first match against Guam
According to the schedule, China will face Guam on May 30 at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center. Prior to that, the Chinese team's goal is to win the match and try to get more goal difference. In recent training, Li Tie also lined up the strongest attacking lineup. However, after the adjustment of the AFC tournament system, the match with Guam is only of warm-up significance and has little practical value.
In this regard, Li Tie and his coaching staff are faced with an important choice: is the strongest lineup for the warm-up, or tactically leave a hand, and strive to give the opponent in the Philippines game to surprise?
