With the end of the new stage of the national team competition, the World Cup Asian qualifier situation has been very clear, Iran and South Korea have qualified in advance, in the 17 seats that have not yet been determined, leaving only the last 2.5 places in Asia, but this has nothing to do with the national football team, they can already prepare for the 2026 World Cup.
In the Asian Qualifier Group A match, Iran and South Korea qualified early with a huge advantage, Iran as the first Asian team to advance through the knockout round, they advanced two rounds ahead of the unbeaten record of 7 wins and 1 draw in 8 games and 22 points, followed by South Korea, who failed to win the first place in the group by 2 points. Now the final suspense of Group A is who can compete for the third place in the group to play a play-off match against Japan or Australia in Group B. Iran and South Korea can advance to the early stage is entirely because the strength of Group A is too large, these two teams have reached 20 points, and the remaining 4 teams are single digits, except for Syria, which has been eliminated in advance, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Iraq have not withdrawn from the competition for the third place in the group.
The situation in Group B where the national football team is located is actually very clear, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia these three teams will be in the top three, and Saudi Arabia and Japan can basically determine the direct promotion, and Australia will also be likely to eliminate the group of Group A third in the play-offs, and play with South American teams in the intercontinental play-offs to determine the 0.5 places that will finally advance. It's just that qualifying, play-offs, etc. have nothing to do with our national football team, in fact, after losing to Japan, early exit is already a foregone conclusion. The fans only expect to be able to win Vietnam in the next game, at least to win the game that should be won, and it is acceptable to stand out, but it is really difficult to get out of the game in such a way as losing Vietnam on their knees.
After announcing the complete end of the 2022 World Cup qualification competition, the national football team continued to carry out training and preparation for the next two honor battles, but judging from the current performance of the national football team, the fans can not see any hope, and it is probably too late to prepare for the 2026 World Cup from now on. According to the official announcement of FIFA, the 2026 World Cup will be expanded to 40 teams, and the extra 8 places will be divided into 4 in Asia. That is to say, in the 2026 World Cup, Asia will have 8.5 places, but unfortunately, according to the latest national team ranking, the Chinese team ranks 75th in the world and 9th in Asia with a score of 1313 points.
At present, most of the players in our national team will not qualify for the 2026 World Cup, and the players who will become the mainstay should be the players in the 95-98 age group, but the selection of materials in this age group of the national football team is very narrow. Not to mention the Europa League, even there are very few who can play stably in the Chinese Super League. In other national teams, players of this age group have gradually gained a foothold in the national team, while the national football team still relies on 30+ mature men, and the young players who can obtain the main position are only Zhang Yuning and Zhu Chenjie, while Wei Shihao and Xu Xin are still only semi-main.
Now the best way for the national football team to impact the 2026 World Cup is to continue naturalization, since it has already set a precedent, why can't it be implemented to the end? If you really rely on the U23 policy of the Chinese Super League to promote seedlings, then let alone 2026, maybe 2030 is not a play. It has been proven that if a young player has enough ability, he will naturally become the main force of the team. And if he can't reach the starting point and let him go, it will not only hit the confidence of the players themselves, but also reduce the viewing of the league, which is almost a policy of harm and no benefit. If we do not rely on naturalization and continue to rely on our chicken feather professional league to train players, then the fastest national football team will qualify for the World Cup in 2034, because at that time, China will be able to bid for the World Cup and directly qualify as the host.