The Beijing Youth Daily revealed that the men's football team will assemble in Dalian on August 18 as planned to prepare for the opening match of the 18-team tournament against Japan on September 5 and the tournament against Saudi Arabia on September 10, the Beijing Youth Daily revealed. As soon as the vacation is over, head coach Ivankovic will depart from Zagreb, Croatia, on the afternoon of the 12th local time and return to Beijing via Doha, Qatar, to prepare for a new round of training and lead the team in these two key matches. It is reported that coach Ivan plans to recruit "newcomers" for each of the three lines.
Ivankovic had already formulated an exhaustive strategy for the preparation of the Top 18 on June 27, and upon his return, his first priority was to quickly finalize the list of players for the new round of training.
Not long ago, Hou Yongyong, a naturalized player who used to play for Beijing Guoan, played for a club in the Norwegian second division. He made it clear on his personal social media platform that he is still a citizen of the People's Republic of China and has no intention of changing his nationality. Croatia's Ivankovic was also aware of this through his Chinese colleagues and said, "I have taken note of this player and will continue to keep an eye on him."
The Norwegian First Division will restart on July 20, and the CFA will pay close attention to Hou Yongyong's performance. Once recognized by the Ivan coaching team, the CFA will need to communicate with Hou Yongyong's Lanheim club to discuss how to draft him into the team. After all, the national football team will be assembled on August 18th, and the China-Japan match will start on September 5th. Even if Hou Yong Yong has the strength and conditions to join the national football team, but also need to get the consent of the club, and reasonable arrangements for his team time.
Wu Shaocong, who plays in Europe, has also caught Ivan's attention. Although he has decided to leave Turkey's first division Youth United Club and will join a club in the Polish league, Wu Shao Cong is temporarily unable to participate in official matches as the Euroleague is in its break, which poses a challenge for the national soccer coaching staff to scout him.
Currently, the biggest problem facing Ivankovic is to find a striker candidate. His favorite center forward candidate Zhang Yuning has recovered from his injury, has taken part in some cooperative training with Guoan, and is likely to play with the team in Shanghai Harbor's away games. However, Fernando, another potential spark in the attack, has missed two consecutive rounds of the Chinese Super League due to objective factors, and Ivan is very concerned about this and expects Fernando to return to the field as soon as possible.
According to the plan, a number of foreign assistant coaches of the national soccer coaching team will return to China on July 8th. Since the beginning of the current round of the league, Zheng Zhi and other Chinese coaches have been assisting the head coach in scouting players. After Ivan's return, the coaching staff will discuss specific candidates.
