On May 4, Beijing time, the AFC news, 2 weeks later, the last region of the Futsal Asian Cup qualifiers, that is, the East Asian region, will open. Hong Kong, Taiwan Province of China, South Korea, Japan and Mongolia will compete for three qualifying spots. The Chinese team, on the other hand, has withdrawn.
This is the second consecutive withdrawal of Chinese futsal from Asian and international major competitions, and they did not participate in the second stage of the World Preliminary Tournament the previous year. Vietnam, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Iran and Japan, the five teams that have qualified for the World Cup, have all reached the Round of 16 knockout rounds of the World Cup.
The biggest futsal tournament under the AFC is the Asian Cup futsal.
Previously, the AFC allocated places to various districts, including 6 in West Asia (excluding Iran), 4 in Central Asia, 3 in East Asia, and 3 in Southeast Asia.
East Asia group, Japan, China and Mongolia. Two regions of China are in the same group as the South Korean team. Six teams compete for 3 regular tournament spots. Now that the Chinese team has withdrawn, other teams have one less rival.
The Chinese futsal team has withdrawn from the Asian zone for the second consecutive time. In last year's World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team qualified from the group and entered the second stage of the competition. Unfortunately, the team did not participate in the subsequent matches.
The AFC changed the schedule, with Japan, Iran and Uzbekistan, the three teams with the best results in the World Series, qualifying directly. Thailand and Vietnam defeated Iraq and Lebanon, two West Asian teams, respectively, to qualify for the World Cup.
In the main tournament, the Asian teams shined and all advanced to the knockout rounds.
In this year's futsal Asian Cup qualifiers, there have been multiple underdogs. Fortunately, there are enough qualifying places, and many teams have almost overturned.
So far, 13 teams from Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Central Asia, and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq, Oman and host Kuwait in the West Asia region have won the main tournament.
Australia, a traditional soccer powerhouse, lost to Myanmar and then lost to Vietnam, and the group was out.
The east Asian zone game has changed due to insufficient teams. From May 17 to 21, five teams will play a round robin tournament, with the top three qualifying directly. Every day, there will be a team resting.
Among the five East Asian teams participating, Taiwan Province of China and Mongolia were the worst performing teams in Asia. The Hong Kong team is similar in strength to the South Korean team, and it is also a team with poor asian strength.
It is a pity that the five-man national football team did not participate in this competition, according to the strength, they can at least make it to the main tournament. In the 2019 World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team is in the same group as Hong Kong, Taiwan Province of China and Mongolia. As a result, in the group stage, they were far ahead of their opponents.
Previously, the five-person national football team had been trained. However, after the training camp, the team officially announced that it would not participate in the main competition.
Due to the consistent abstention, the five-man national football team has not had an international competition for three consecutive years. Understanding of Asian rivals also continues to decline. Another tournament, the AFC Futsal Championship, has not been held in recent years.
With the team's consecutive bottom-up results (no points for abstaining), the future five-man national football team may be assigned to powerful opponents from the beginning.
Like 11-a-side football, futsal is evolving rapidly.
The players of the five-man national football team have fewer matches throughout the year. Not participating in this competition also means that in the future, they will most likely need to start all over again.
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