The new season of the Chinese Super League was in full swing last weekend, and the focus of Chinese football has all shifted to the domestic league. However, the matter of building the national brand team did not stop there.
It is understood that the men's national team and the 99-year-old Asian Games team will be concentrated again in the FIFA designated national team competition window in June, among which, the men's national team will plan to play a warm-up match with the Myanmar team and the Palestinian team, of which the Palestinian Football Association has officially released the news; The Asian Games team is planning to invite the South Korean Asian Games team to China for two warm-up matches.
In June, the focus was on the Asian Games team
After returning home from a trip to New Zealand in late March, both the national team and the 99-year-old Asian Games team made their own summaries and discussed their next steps.
And, as the head coach of the men's national team Jankovic said after the match against New Zealand, the focus of the two national teams will be fully shifted to the 99-year-old Asian Games team, especially when the two national teams regroup during the national team competition window in June, everything will be dominated by the 99-year-old Asian team, whether it is personnel or other aspects.
According to Jankovic's opinion, when the two national teams are concentrated in June, the Asian Games team is first satisfied in terms of personnel, that is, the head coach of the Asian Games team, Jurjevic, first selects and circles relevant personnel, and all Asian Games age players will be given priority to enter the Asian Games team, and the national team will no longer temporarily select age-appropriate players like Zhu Chenjie and Wu Shaocong as when visiting New Zealand.
Secondly, because the Asian Games men's football tournament allows the recruitment of three over-age players, Gyurjevic draws up a list of over-age players according to the needs of the team, and the national team will definitely not call up the over-age players circled by the Asian Games team, so that the over-age players and the Asian Games players can run in through international warm-up matches.
After determining this general principle, the Asian Games team should be able to form the strongest team for running-in when it regroups in June, after all, there is not much time left before the Hangzhou Asian Games, and before the start of the Asian Games men's football competition, there are only two complete running-in opportunities, in addition to the national team competition window in June, only the last national team competition window in early September remains.
Moreover, since the national team competition window in early September coincides with the first stage of the men's Asian qualifiers for the Paris Olympics, several over-age players will definitely not be able to participate in warm-up matches and run-ins with the Asian team. Therefore, June may be the only opportunity for the Asian Games team to form a complete squad before the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The national football team plays the weak team with an eye on the competition
After determining such a general principle, when the men's national team arranged its warm-up opponents in June, the highest priority was to get as many technical points as possible in the FIFA ranking, and the reason why the Myanmar team and the Palestinian team were chosen was more for this consideration, because if you want to get FIFA ranking points, you need to win in the international A competition. Finding relatively weak opponents is also to increase the chances of winning.
Frankly, after losing points in two international A games against New Zealand in late March, the national team has now dropped to 81st in the world and 11th in Asia, and the technical points between them and Oman, who are ranked ninth, and Uzbekistan, who are ranked tenth, have further widened, while the gap with Jordan has narrowed to 4.72 points. If you don't win in the international A division in June, your technical points may be further reduced, or even overtaken by Jordan. Therefore, the national football team needs to win to maintain the current ranking.
Of course, even winning both games is unlikely to have much impact on the overall situation. Because when the AFC drew the Asian Cup final stage in Doha on May 11, it was divided according to the latest ranking announced on April 6, and the Chinese team was definitely the second tier team; In late July, FIFA and AFC will draw the first and second stages of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, and the Chinese team is currently ranked 11th in Asia, even if they win both matches in June, it is basically impossible to be among the top nine in Asia and become the second tier team of the World Preliminary Round of 36. At the same time, because the technical points are 93 points ahead of the 19th-ranked Indian team, the Chinese team is not likely to become the third tier team. In other words, the Chinese team won the Myanmar team and the Palestinian team, and in the latest FIFA rankings released on July 20 this year, the ranking will not change much. Therefore, the participation of the national team in the second stage of the World Preliminary Round of 36 can basically be determined.
Therefore, the national football team played Myanmar and Palestine in June to win and get FIFA technical points, that is, to maintain the current ranking situation. But on the other hand, what is more important is to let the new national football team start from the weak team and build the confidence of the new national football team by winning. Moreover, when choosing Myanmar and Palestine, the national football team is more focused on the future Asian Cup and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
In the future round of 36, the second stage of the World Preliminary Tournament in November, China, as the second tier team, will first play the third tier team in the first round of the group stage. If the Myanmar team can break into the second stage of the round of 36, it may become a third-tier team, even if it is a fourth-tier team, the national football team can find the feeling of the game and prepare for the World Preliminary Round. In the group stage of the Asian Cup final stage in January 2024, the Chinese team as the second tier team will also play the third tier team in the first round, and the Palestinian team will participate as the third tier team in the Asian Cup final stage.
It is precisely because of this that the national football team warms up with teams that are lower in the ranking, and the most important thing is to focus on the long term. At the same time, as the national football team wants to "give way" to the Asian Games team, after the three core players are transferred to support the Asian Games team, the strength may be affected somewhat, and coach Jankovic can also take the opportunity to scout new players and prepare for the future.
The Asian Games team may play against the South Korean team
Unlike the national team looking for weak teams to warm up, maintain the current FIFA ranking, and prepare for the next two competitions, the 99-year-old Asian Games team is currently contacting the South Korean Asian Games team, hoping that the latter can come to China in June to warm up with the Chinese Asian Games team during the national team competition window. The Asian Games team made such a choice, completely using the South Korean team as the "coordinates" of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
It is well known that the South Korean team was the gold medalist in the men's football tournament of the 2014 Asian Games in 2014 and 2018. Moreover, because the Asian Games are related to the exemption of Korean players from military service, the Korean football community also attaches great importance to the men's football match of the Asian Games. So far, among the Asian powers that registered for the men's football tournament of the Hangzhou Asian Games, only the South Korean team will send 99-year-old players to participate, while other teams such as Japan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, etc. are basically based on the 2001 national Olympic team, and after participating in the first stage of the Olympic qualifiers in early September, after a slight adjustment, go to Hangzhou to participate. The men's football tournament at the Hangzhou Asian Games will be used as a training exercise before the Asian finals of the Paris Olympics in April 2024.
Since the Chinese Asian Games team has task indicators at this year's Hangzhou Asian Games, it needs to enter at least the top eight and impact the top four. In this case, the reason why the Asian Games team is looking for an opponent like the South Korean team as a warm-up object is to hope that after forming the strongest team, through the confrontation with the South Korean team, see how far the Chinese Asian Games team is from the strongest team in Asia, and judge whether the Asian Games team can complete the task indicator at home. After the warm-up, because there is another opportunity to adjust in September. Therefore, for the Asian Games team, choosing to warm up with the South Korean Asian Games team does not value the results of the warm-up match, but hopes to determine the positioning of the Asian Games team through warm-up.
So far, the warm-up plan with the South Korean Asian Games team is still in contact and implemented, but warming up with the strong team is of positive significance to the Asian Games team's preparation.
The national football team warms up for the weak team and the Asian Games team warms up the strong team, and the two different teams have their own focus because of their different tasks and goals. It should be said that in the construction of the national team, whether it is the head coach of the two teams or the national team management department of the football association, there are considerations and considerations, not simply playing for the game and warming up for warm-up.
![The young players are still too nervous and must beat India by a big score if they want to play the next game[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)