On December 18th, our national soccer team embarked on a journey to the United Arab Emirates to make final preparations for the upcoming Asian Cup. Before that, head coach Jankovic gave an in-depth interview to the media and talked about his views on the hot issues of public concern. Through his words, fans may be able to glimpse the team's expectations and determination for the Asian Cup.
When it comes to the expectations of the Asian Cup, despite the fact that our national soccer team managed to make it to the last eight last time, this may already be the limit for the Asian soccer community. The FA has yet to announce specific targets internally, however there is widespread speculation that it will be at least on par with the previous edition. When confronted with this question, Jankovic did not reveal specific targets.
Jankovic emphasized that, as a coach, he is more interested in the team's ability to play at the right technical and tactical level, as shown in the World Preliminary Round. In the upcoming matches, our goals can only be achieved gradually. At the moment, everyone is expecting us to do well, and as a team we have our own small goal, which is to do our best in the first match against Tajikistan.
For this Asian Cup, the national soccer team has more than 20 participants and the final list is yet to be determined. In response, Jankovic said that we will decide the final lineup through the preparation process. I am not worried about this issue, every player called up deserves this opportunity and has the strength to play for the team.
The opponents of the Asian Cup group stage, Qatar and Lebanon, have recently changed their coaches, which has both advantages and disadvantages for our country. The advantage is that there may be some instability in the opponents; the disadvantage is that the tactics of the new coaches may require our team to adapt and prepare.
Talking about the change of opponents, Jankovic believes that we should not pay too much attention to other opponents, but focus on gathering information about their matches and understanding our opponents. We respect all opponents, but more importantly, we respect ourselves. The national team will collect enough useful information to make sure that they won't be affected by unexpected situations during the match, and that's enough, the rest is to do well for ourselves.
In fact, from Yankovic's conversation, it is clear that he may have received an internal instruction from the FA not to reveal the clear goal of the Asian Cup so easily. At present, the strength of our national soccer team in Asia may only reach the limit of the top eight. Once the opponents encountered after the group stage are too strong, the top eight may be difficult to touch, so it may be wise to keep a low profile at this time.
The opponents in the Asian Cup group stage include Qatar, Lebanon and Tajikistan, of which Qatar is stronger, while Lebanon and Tajikistan are not as well ranked internationally as ours, but we still should not be taken lightly. Lebanon and Tajikistan reportedly have many naturalized players, and both teams are also preparing actively as they hope to win the Asian Cup group qualification. I sincerely hope that the national soccer team's trip to the Asian Cup will meet the expectations of their fans.
