The national football team is expected to gather the strongest team in the World Preliminary Round in October, and will invite the strong teams from the Americas or Africa to warm up

According to the competition calendar released by FIFA and AFC, the second stage of the 2026 USCAN-Mexico World Cup Qualifiers in Asia, that is, the first two rounds of the Round of 36, will be played during the international break cycle in November this year. Due to factors such as the full preparation of the Chinese men's football team and its participation in the Hangzhou Asian Games football match, the Chinese team was unable to recruit all the main players in the two training sessions that have ended this year. According to the plan, the coaching staff will "go in three steps" in this year's international football selection work, and gather the full lineup for the World Preliminary Round in October this year.

In order to improve the team's practical ability and ability to withstand heavy pressure, the Chinese Football Association and the coaching staff will no longer limit their goals to Asian teams when choosing the next two international break cycles for the team to warm up opponents. Strong teams from the Americas and Africa, such as Costa Rica and Cameroon, may become a warm-up choice before the start of the round of 36.

The Chinese Super League will rekindle the war on the 28th of this month, and the national football coaching team with Jankovic as the coach will also return to the league to inspect international players. It is understood that after two training camps and four international A warm-up matches in March and June this year, Jankovic has a clearer understanding of the ability of the vast majority of international players who are in the squad. The team also gained confidence by beating Myanmar and Palestine this month.

However, the goal of a team that is about to hit the 2026 World Cup cannot be limited to rebuilding confidence, but needs to improve its level and form as quickly as possible. It is based on this consideration that the team will choose the team that is generally stronger than the warm-up opponent in June in the warm-up matches in September and October. So far, Malaysia, which has maintained a strong position in Southeast Asian football in recent years, has confirmed that it has been invited to warm up with the Chinese team in September. As for another warm-up opponent of the national football team that month, it is likely to be from Europe, the United States or Africa. For example, strong teams such as Costa Rica and Cameroon may become warm-up targets for the Chinese team. It should be noted that according to the established plan, the Chinese team will play at home in four consecutive international warm-up matches in September and October, so in the case of tight time, it takes a certain amount of energy or cost to persuade non-Asian strong teams to participate in China, so the specific warm-up plan is still variable.

It can be seen that the Chinese team will not limit the goal of warming up opponents to Asian (AFC) football when implementing the warm-up plan. In addition to the one warm-up match in September, the opponents of the Chinese team in the two warm-up games in October were basically confirmed to be strong teams, and they are likely to come from Europe, the United States or Africa.

It is understood that according to the principle of "ready-to-use" personnel recruitment of Jankovic, the players who participated in the team's two training sessions in March and June were all candidates for the national football team's World Preliminary Round this year. About 80% of the team's World Preliminary Round lineup will be selected from these two training camps. The remaining 20% of the places will be selected from the elite players of the men's Asian Games team (over-age players and top players of Asian Games age such as Zhu Chenjie and Wu Shaocong), injured international players (Wu Xi, Zhang Yuning, etc.), and players with outstanding performance in individual leagues. It is not difficult to judge from this that the national football coaching staff will roughly take three steps in the selection of the squad for the World Preliminary Round. First of all, use the March training camp and warm-up to achieve team restructuring; Second, use June training and warm-up to help the team regain confidence; Third, use September and October to warm up with the opposite strong teams to improve the team's reading ability in the competition, and at the same time find out their own positioning in terms of technical ability.

Since Zhu Chenjie, Dai Weijun, Wu Shaocong, Jiang Shenglong and three over-aged internationals will compete in the Hangzhou Asian Games, they will not be able to join the national team until the training camp in October at the earliest. In addition, among them, there are not many players like Zhu Chenjie who can lock the main position of the national football team, so Jankovic can basically "simulate" the technical and tactical play and lineup arrangement of the World Preliminary Tournament through training and warm-up matches during the training in September.

Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao