This afternoon, our soccer team embarked on a journey, bidding farewell to the bustling Shanghai and flying directly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is expected to arrive at dusk on the 18th local time, and after a short rest, it will go to Abu Dhabi to prepare for the upcoming Asian Cup.
The team's intense preparations in Abu Dhabi will see them welcome the challenge of Oman, as well as sparring with local teams in the UAE. However, the planned friendly match against India may not take place due to a change in the opponent's schedule, and the team is actively looking for a new opponent. on January 7, the team will leave for Qatar for the final sprint training.
Meanwhile, the rivals in the same group are also actively preparing for their matches. Tajikistan's army has been gearing up in the United Arab Emirates, where they will warm up with a number of teams, including Vietnam. Looking at Tajikistan's training roster, there is a clear trend of rejuvenation in the team, with only three players over the age of 30, and 12 players under the age of 23, of which eight are under the age of 21. Croatian-born coach Šegot has played a key role in the team's rejuvenation.
Last Monday, the Lebanese Football Association (LFA) announced that Radulovic will once again take the helm of the national team. The coach, who led the Lebanese national team to its first ever Asian Cup qualifying campaign from 2015-2019, held a three-day meeting with the federation's stakeholders to finalize the Asian Cup training roster. According to local media reports, the training will take place from December 19-28 and a total of 29 people have been selected, eight of whom played alongside Radulovic at the 2019 Asian Cup.
However, it is still possible that Radulovic will make changes to the roster after training. Players such as Ayoub and Darwish, who played key roles in the 36-team Asian qualifier for the U.S.-Canada-Mexico World Cup, are expected to return to the team after recovering from injuries. In addition, Radulovic has asked the Lebanese Football Association to purchase player data software in order to understand players through big data analysis.
Hosts Qatar are also in the same group as our soccer team. The Qatar League will play its 12th round of matches from December 20-22, and head coach Marques will need to quickly organize his players into training after the league. The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has scheduled a warm-up match against Cambodia on Dec. 31 and another warm-up match on Jan. 12 before taking on Lebanon. After that, Marks will adjust the team roster.
According to the Asian Cup system, the 24 teams are divided into six groups during the group stage, with the top two and four best-performing teams advancing to the round of 16.
