China's group opponents have launched intense preparations for the fierce 40-team tournament. However, in stark contrast to the strong all-round support of our team, they seem to be slightly inadequate in their preparations.
On May 20, our team's arch-rival in the group stage, the Philippines, announced its 25-man training roster. Surprisingly, among these 25 players, only 11 of them had participated in the first round of home matches with our team in the 40-team tournament, of which 8 of them had been the starters in that match, while 12 of them had not played for the Philippine team. What's more noteworthy is that the list also contains four players who have yet to complete the registration process for citizenship conversion, and it's still unknown whether they'll be able to come to China as scheduled.
The Syrian team, another formidable opponent of our team, arrived in Dubai in the early hours of May 20th. But regrettably, less than 10 of their players participated in the training. Since yesterday, the Syrian team members have returned to the team, including the center Soma. It is worth mentioning that the Syrian team also includes a center back, Saleh, who used to play for Henan Jianye, and their most threatening attacking player, Mawas. Nonetheless, the Syrian team has made it clear that they will not be scheduled to play during the Dubai training period due to a lack of personnel.
The Maldives team, on the other hand, has only been able to train in the hotel's Grand Ballroom since the start of training on the 13th of this month due to the epidemic. Although they have moved the tables in the ballroom to one side, they have only been able to conduct some simple ball exercises in such an environment.
