On January 8, Beijing time, the news of the AFC, the futsal Asian Cup group was released, and the five-man national football team encountered the most difficult group match. Japan, the only strong team in East Asia, was assigned to a group with them.
According to the regulations, the first group can qualify, and the second will be eliminated.
The national football team encountered such a difficult group stage, which may be related to its lack of points and being classified into the second grade. In previous matches, the five-man national football team was the first-class team in East Asia. However, in the 2020 Futsal World Cup qualifiers, the five-man national football team did not participate in the follow-up matches after playing the group stage.
The Chinese futsal team was once one of the strongest teams in Asia. In the past, only Japan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Iran were stronger than the five-man national team. In many competitions, the five-man national football team still has the history of defeating these strong teams. In addition, the five-man national football team has also entered the stage of the World Cup.
In recent years, Asian futsal has made rapid progress. Although there are also leagues in China and foreign aid has been introduced, the gap with other Asian teams is widening.
In the Asian Cup of Futsal in 2018, the five-man national football team suffered two fiascos. They lost to Iraq and Iran respectively, with the score of 1-11 against Iran. The only victory came from the weak team of Myanmar, and the score was still 5-3.
At the Five-a-Side World Cup that ended last year, the five-a-side national football team regrettably did not participate in the Asian finals. In the group stage, they won three games and three wins, and they achieved a rare good result.
Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Vietnam received tickets to the World Cup. On the stage of the World Cup, they all qualified from the group, with Iran also reaching the quarterfinals. The Asian team Kazakhstan, which competed in the European zone, finished fourth in the World Cup.
After this group, the Chinese team was in the same group as the Japanese and Mongolian teams. The weak Taiwan Provincial team matched south Korea (south Korea is the traditional weak team in this project, having lost 2-7, 3-14 to West Asian teams) and Hong Kong, China as a seeded team, and it is not difficult to qualify from the group.
In the five-legged World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team was in the same group as the Taiwan Provincial team of China. In the group, the five-man national football team once won 8-2. Since the final in the Asian zone was held in early 2020, the five-man national football team did not participate. This may have led to the team not having enough points to become the seeded team in East Asia.
Among the opponents in the group stage, Mongolia is not bad. In the five-legged World Preliminary Round, the five-man national football team once beat them 3-0.
In addition, the Japanese team is strong. They were not only runners-up in the last Asian Cup, but also had 2 super-strong naturalized players. The gap between the five-man national football team and them is probably even greater than the gap between the 11-man national football team and the Japanese team.
The gap between Chinese football and Japanese football is all-round, and the 11-man national football team may be the team with the smallest gap with the Japanese team in the 3 items of men's football.
In last year's futsal, Japan reached the round of 16 and unfortunately lost to the super powerhouse Brazil. In the beach soccer World Cup, Japan became the biggest dark horse last year, they went all the way to the final, and unfortunately lost to the host Team Russia.
Unlike the 11-a-side Japanese team, the Japanese team has naturalized players in the field of futsal and beach soccer. In order to break through the barrier guarded by Hispanic goalkeepers, Chinese five football players need to redouble their efforts.
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