On January 27, the round of 12 will open the seventh round of competition, the national football team will play away against Japan, frankly, although the theoretical analysis of the national football team still has the possibility of rushing into the top three, but in fact, the probability of qualifying has been 0, and the next four rounds of matches are more like routine.
Life will continue, the subsequent 2023 local Asian Cup is very important, after all, the Chinese people want face, as the host, the Asian Cup top four is basically the bottom line. And then more important is of course the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, although the 2-year World Cup restructuring is likely to go bankrupt, but the 2026 World Cup expanded to 48 teams, has been nailed down, it is reported that the World Cup becomes 48 teams after the Asian region will have 8.5 places.
On the football field, strength is always the most important, from the Asian level, Japan and South Korea Iosa is still the strongest 5 teams, the last five World Cups, in addition to the North Korean team into the 2010 World Cup, the Asian region is dominated by these teams. In the latest round of 12 standings, Iran and South Korea in group A are in the top two of the group, basically qualified; group B is Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia occupy the top three, which is almost exactly the same as the previous round of 12.
Therefore, as long as Australia does not withdraw from the AFC, the 2026 World Cup Asian seats, basically Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Australia will occupy five seats, and the strength of the New Asia Cup champion Qatar has risen significantly, at least in the next few years, can compete with Japan, South Korea, Iran, Australia, then maybe 6 places are gone.
With the remaining 2.5 places, the competitors are the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, China, Uzbekistan, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Bahrain, North Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, and frankly speaking, although it is not easy for Chinese to lose to these teams, it is equally difficult to win them.
In recent years, the Chinese team has been ranked 8th or 9th in the FIFA rankings in the Asian region for a long time, which also truly reflects the strength of the team, and the embarrassing thing is that there are only 8.5 places, which means that the Chinese team is basically on the line.
From the 85 generation onwards, the level of Chinese football is not as good as a generation, and the worst level is after 93 and 97, and in the 2026 World Preliminary Tournament, these two age groups are just at the right age, the vast "naturalization tide", because of the decline of the Chinese Super League, has completely lost the market.
In recent years, the level of the Chinese team is basically eight or nine in Asia, it can be expected that after a few years, the level of the Chinese team may only be worse than now, and the number of places in the Asian region is only 8.5, which seems to be a lot, in fact, it is still very difficult for the national football team to qualify. Coupled with the fact that Chinese players are generally extremely poor in psychological quality, the competition can not play at a high level, to be honest, for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, I am still difficult to be optimistic about the national football team.