The Round of 12 ended the 7th round of contention, and the Chinese team was in Group B: Japan 0-2 for the national football team, 1-0 for Oman in Saudi Arabia, 4-0 for Vietnam for Australia. In this case, although the Saudi team has not yet qualified in advance, it is not far from qualifying. In Group A, Iran is 1-0 Iraq, South Korea is 1-0 Lebanon, and the UAE is 2-0 Syria. With only the last three rounds left in the schedule, Iran, with 19 points, has locked up a World Cup spot in advance, while the second-placed South Korean team has basically qualified.
In this year's Round of 12, one of the commonalities between the two groups is that they are strong and weak. The Iranian and South Korean teams in Group A showed the strength to crush the other 4 teams, and both teams have remained unbeaten so far, with South Korea winning 5 and drawing 2 and Iran winning 6 and drawing 1. Compared with the strong South Korea and Iran, the other 4 teams are equal in strength.
At present, the UAE team is slightly dominant, leading the third place battle with 9 points. However, their lead is not large, 4 points, 5 points and 7 points ahead of Lebanon, Iraq and Syria behind them. With three rounds left on the schedule, the next four teams all have a chance to qualify for the play-offs. The most amazing thing about this round of 12 is that the weakest Syrian team in Group A, currently only has 2 points, and has not won 7 rounds of the schedule, but it is still alive and has the opportunity to enter the World Cup through the play-offs. This cannot but be said to make the national football team very envious.
In Group A, where the Chinese team is located, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia are in the top three. Among them, Saudi Arabia has become the first group almost alone due to its large lead. The current situation is that the Saudi team, which has 19 points after winning, is only one step away from locking up the World Cup quota, while Japan and Australia are competing for the remaining place to directly qualify for the World Cup. Of course, Australia secured at least one place play-off spot because it was up to seven points ahead of the 4th-place Oman team.
For the Chinese team, the journey of this year's Top 12 can be said to be quite embarrassing. As soon as he came up, he encountered 2 strong enemies Australia and Japan, and as a result, Li Tieguo, who did not fully understand himself, suffered consecutive defeats without suspense. Subsequently, despite the national football team's victory over Vietnam, it eventually lost to Saudi Arabia due to its strength and conceded 3 points in the match against Oman. As for the 1-1 draw with Australia in the second leg, the national football team has a larger element of luck.
Judging from the performance of the entire Top 12, the strength of China, Vietnam and Oman can be said to be very close, and whoever plays better on the spot can win. Of course, among the three teams, the technical and tactical style of oman is the clearest, and the playing style is more practical, which fully demonstrates the ability of the head coach.
As for the national football team, it can be said that from the very beginning, it was not ready to impact the World Cup. What is even more embarrassing for Chinese football is that so far in the round of 12, only the 2 teams of China and Vietnam have fallen behind in advance. Falling behind in Vietnam can be said to be inexperienced. In addition to the lack of strength, there is also a very important reason for the national football team: internal friction. This is also the main reason why fans are very dissatisfied with the performance of the national football team.