The Chinese Olympic team will face the Jordanian Olympic team, the fourth opponent of this Siala practice, at 2:30 a.m. Beijing time on the 8th. In the early morning of the 7th local time, Xie Wenneng, a striker who plays for Shandong Taishan Club of the Chinese Super League, has flown to Doha. So far, all 23 players of the Chinese Olympic team participating in the final stage of the Olympic preliminaries will gather. Head coach Cheng Yaodong will use the next warm-up matches and training to run in the main battle formation for the Olympic preliminaries.
In order to prepare for the 6th U23 Asian Cup and the Asian finals of the men's football qualifiers for the Paris Olympic Games, which will kick off in mid-April, the Chinese Olympic team went to Doha on March 21 for a three-week training, during which it played six warm-up matches with five teams of the same age. According to the schedule, the national Olympic team will participate in the fifth warm-up match on the evening of the 7th local time, and the opponent is the Jordanian national Olympic team. Although the team is the third team in the Olympic qualifiers, the overall style of the team is in line with the Jordanian national team, which finished runners-up in the Asian Cup at the beginning of this year, with players who are not only skilled with the ball at their feet, but also outstanding physical ability. The Chinese Olympic team is actually using this team as an imaginary opponent for the second round of the group stage against South Korea.
It is worth noting that the five warm-up opponents encountered by the national Olympic team Siala are all participating teams in the final stage of the U23 Asian Cup and Olympic preliminaries. They are the Saudi Arabian Olympic Team, the Qatar Olympic Team, the Malaysian Olympic Team, the Jordan Olympic Team, and the Uzbekistan Olympic Team, of which Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Uzbekistan are the seeded teams of the event. Therefore, warming up with such an opponent is very valuable for military training. Among the five opponents, there are not only technical teams such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, but also tough teams such as Jordan and Uzbekistan that combine skill and physical confrontation. In other words, warming up with them is very beneficial for the national Olympic team to adapt to the competition rhythm of the Olympic preliminaries at this stage and the technical and tactical play of different types of opponents in advance.
Another point is that by taking advantage of this stage of training, the national Olympic team has adapted well to the local climate and competition conditions. For example, the warm-up match against the Qatar Olympic team will be arranged at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, the venue for the Chinese Olympic team to face the Japanese Olympic team in the first round of the group stage of the Olympic preliminary stage. The remaining two matches of the team's group stage were arranged at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, one of the venues of the previous Asian Cup, which was also the venue for the national football team to play against Tajikistan in the group stage of the Asian Cup. It is worth noting that the first of these two venues is an air-conditioned venue and the other is an unair-conditioned venue, and the Chinese Olympic team also needs to prepare accordingly.
On the 5th local time, that is, 10 days before the start of the Olympic preliminary tournament at this stage, the AFC announced the registration list of 23 players for each team according to regulations. Xiang Yuwang, Chen Yuhao, and Shi Songchen 3 players were finally defeated, so they left the team on the 4th local time and returned to China. Because the main goalkeeper Jian Tao was injured by his teammates during the preparation for the Chinese Super League with the Chengdu Rongcheng team, he was unable to return to the team to participate in the Olympic preliminaries. The coaching staff of the national Olympic team temporarily decided to recruit goalkeeper Li Hao, who plays for Corneglia in the Spanish Association First Division, to join the team. Li Hao arrived in Doha in the early morning of the 4th local time to meet with the National Olympic team. As a sparring partner, goalkeeper Ren Zihao from Shanghai Port Club B team left Doha on the evening of the 6th local time to return to China.
After the first warm-up match of the Chinese and Saudi Olympic teams on March 23, Tao Qianglong, who returned to China to participate in the Chinese Super League, returned to the National Olympic team in the early morning of April 6 local time, and Xie Wenneng will return to the team on the morning of the 7th local time. In the previous 3rd and 4th rounds of the Chinese Super League, the two attackers of the national Olympic team have obtained stable playing time on behalf of the club team. Xie Wenneng also started for the home team in the strong dialogue between Taishan and Shenhua in the third round of the Chinese Super League. It should be said that although these two players have a difficult schedule, they have maintained a good competitive state.
It is understood that although Li Hao arrived at the team in the early morning of the 7th local time, considering that he had experienced a long flight before and there was a certain time difference between Spain and Qatar, the coaching staff did not arrange for him to play. At present, Huang Zihao, who plays for Nanjing City Club in the Chinese League, will most likely be the main goalkeeper of the National Olympic team in recent warm-up games. Li Hao plans to come off the bench during the warm-up matches of the Chinese and Johoria Olympic teams. Xie Wenneng has just arrived in the team, so it is difficult to play in this game. With the personnel gathered, Cheng Yaodong will also hone the lineup for the Olympic preliminaries through the last two warm-up games and training.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yun
Editor/Wang Haozhou