Reporter Chen Yong reported that on April 3, the Chinese national team and the U23 national team will return to China from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. When the two national teams return home, the players will be given a short break before returning to the league. Due to the postponement of the return of the two teams, the Chinese Super League could not start normally on April 23, but the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Federation are still trying to start the Chinese Super League before May Day.
In the last two matches of the round of 12, the Chinese national team drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia and lost 0-2 to Oman, which did not bring too many surprises to the outside world, and even received a lot of criticism. For the prospects of the national team, there are different ideas and evaluations from all sides, but the overall performance of the round of 12 with 6 points is still difficult to be satisfied.
As for the U23 national team, participating in the "Dubai Cup" competition this time is a very good training opportunity. Before participating in the Dubai Cup, the U23 national team took the lead in a warm-up match with the uae's local club Abu Dhabi Wahda, drawing 1-1.
In the "Dubai Cup" match, the U23 national team lost 0-1 to the UAE U23 team in the first game, defeated Thailand 4-2 in the second game, and lost to the UAE U23 team in the last three or four qualifying matches, 0-3, in this game the U23 national team conceded two goals in the final stage of stoppage time, but in this game, the U23 national team was very active throughout the game, which was still impressive.
In order to allow more players to play and further examine the players, the U23 national team made a temporary appointment for a game. On the afternoon of April 1, local time in the United Arab Emirates, the U23 national team and the UAE second division team Liwa FC team played a warm-up match, and finally won the opponent 3-0 with the goals of Cai Mingmin and Huang Jiahui, ending the trip to West Asia with a victory.
In just half a month, the U23 national team has played five consecutive games and has been well trained, which is undoubtedly the most gratifying, and the next goal of the U23 national team will be to participate in the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Because of the epidemic prevention and control, the national team and the U23 national team could not return to China according to the established plan.
The plan before departure is that after the national team finishes the round of 12 and the U23 national team ends the "Dubai Cup", the two teams will fly back to Shanghai together, but the epidemic has affected the implementation of the plan, fortunately, the international footballers have not stayed in West Asia for too long, and on the morning of April 3, local time, the two national teams will depart for Home together and quarantine on the spot after arriving in Hainan.
After returning home, members of the Chinese national team and the U23 national team will face at least 21 days of quarantine, after which they will return to their respective clubs to prepare for the new season of the Chinese Super League.
The 2022 season of the Chinese Super League was originally planned to be carried out in a home-and-away manner, but due to the epidemic prevention and control, it is currently difficult to play home-and-away matches in the first stage.
The current plan is that the Chinese Super League will be divided into three divisions and will play in four stages, of which the first 10 games will be played in the conference system, followed by the second, third and fourth stages, according to the epidemic prevention and control situation, if conditions permit, we will strive to restore the home and away system.
Because the two national teams had to postpone the return time, counting the quarantine time, the Chinese Super League could not start normally on April 23, but the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group were still fighting for it, hoping to start the Chinese Super League before May Day.