On October 5, the national football team, which was training in Shanghai, opened to the media, and coach Ivankovic said: "We are in a difficult group, we have to try to play our best in every game and get as many points as possible." ”
The national football team will face Australia and Indonesia in the round of 18 of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup on October 10 and 15 respectively. In the author's opinion, Ivankovic, who has led the team to three consecutive defeats, although he did not leave class, is more like dancing in shackles. As the management of the Chinese Football Association, the retention of Ivankovic is more of a delaying tactic, and these two games seem to give people the feeling of "going through the motions".
The league gives way, against the laws of football
In the last international break of the World Preliminaries, the Chinese Football Association adjusted the schedule for the national football team to better compete in the top 18 of the World Preliminaries. As a result, the national football team was in no state for 13 days of intensive training, first losing 0-7 to Japan, creating a number of disastrous records: the largest score defeat against Japan, the most goals conceded in a single game in the World Preliminary Round, and the largest score loss in the World Preliminary Round; After that, the national football team was reversed 2-1 by the Saudi Arabian team in the good situation of 11 playing more than 10 people, fighting at home, and leading the score.
Fans of the Chinese team after the game on September 5. On the same day, in the first round of Group C of the 2026 World Cup Asian Qualifiers Round of 18 held in Saitama, Japan, the Chinese team lost 0-7 to Japan. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaoyu
In addition to the poor on-the-spot command and sluggish tactical adjustment of the national football coach Ivankovic, the Chinese Football Association adopted the approach of "the league makes way for the national football team", which violated the laws of football and handed over the tuition. Compared with the Chinese men's football team's "abandoning the league to protect the national football", the professional leagues of Japan and Korea are carried out normally, and the Japanese and Korea national teams only train for 4 or 5 days before the game, but the state of the international players in the professional league is fully guaranteed.
Entering the new international break cycle of the World Preliminary Championship, the preparation time of the national football team is about 8 days, which is significantly shorter than the last time, but still far exceeds the national brands of Japan and Korea. The Japan J League will still play a round of league on October 5 and 6, and the Korea K League will also play normally on October 6 - Japan will play in the World Preliminary Round on the 11th, and Korea will play on the 10th, leaving only 3 days for Japan and Korea to train intensively.
The national football training camp lasted for 8 days, compared to Japan and Korea to ensure that the league was held, and the preparation time for the national football team was only 3 or 4 days.
It is worth noting that the Japan team, which had only trained for 4 days before, defeated the Chinese men's soccer team for 13 days 7-0, in addition to the strength gap between the two teams and the tactical misalignment of the national football team, the long-term training camp jointly led by Ivankovic and the Chinese Football Association, and the league made way for the national football team.
The camp is full of wounded soldiers, and the national football team recruits new people
In order to squeeze out time for the national football training camp, the schedule of the Chinese Super League has been continuously compressed, and the schedule is too dense, causing the international players to be physically tired and injured one after another. What seemed to be a good starting point ended up outweighing the losses because it violated the basic laws of football. In this training camp, national football strikers Wu Lei and Alan are injured in the domestic league, and they must hang up their exemption cards, and the national football coaching staff can only deal with it by recruiting new people.
Wu Lei was injured in the last round of the Chinese Super League.
Regarding the injury situation of the national team, Ivankovic said: "The previous schedule was relatively intensive, and there were some injuries to the players, which had some impact on the training camp. Wu Lei decided to stay in Shanghai to recuperate, let's see if he can catch up with the next game when we come back, Alan also needs to recuperate, Yang Zexiang has a serious strain, and he should not participate in both games. Now Gao Zhunyi and Lin Liangming also have some injuries and are unable to participate in training. ”
As the active striker with the most goals in the national football team, the injury of Wu Lei, a core player of the harbor team, also affects the hearts of the coaching staff. On September 28, in the 27th round of the Chinese Super League, Wu Lei, the main striker of the harbor team, was carried out on a stretcher due to injury and sent to the hospital for examination.
On September 30, the Shanghai Port Club issued an announcement on Wu Lei's injury: after two expert consultations, it was confirmed that Wu Lei's ribs had no obvious fractures, but the pain in the injury was strong and accompanied by a certain degree of dyspnea, which needs to be further re-examined. In addition, the old knee injury has a corresponding recurrence of symptoms.
Although Wu Lei was injured, he still went to report to the national football team and was interviewed by the media.
The injured Wu Lei still went to report to the national football team. He said, "During this time, I have been recuperating and the pain is relatively strong, and I have undergone physiotherapy and started jogging in the past few days. I hope to recover as soon as possible, the away game against Australia may be difficult, but I am still in the team in the training camp these days, and I also want to convey a spirit of not giving up. I want to be with the team. ”
In order to cope with the shortage of personnel, the national football coaching staff recruited Cheng Jin of the Zhejiang team and Hu Hetao of Chengdu Rongcheng, who served as midfielders and fullbacks respectively. Obviously, after the injuries of Alan and Wu Lei, the coaching staff believes that the current number of strikers is sufficient, after all, the Australia team is strong, and the national football team will focus more on the overall defense.
The future is dangerous, and it is possible to lose four games in a row
The oolong coincided with the overnight rain, and the hemp rope was broken in detail. For the sluggish national football team, there are still two opponents who are on the rise - the Australia team has just completed the change of coach, and the new head coach Popovich has greatly adjusted the international team after taking office, and the tactical play of the previous game does not have much reference, which is not good news for the national football team; The Indonesian team quickly stepped up and naturalized 2 powerful players again, with as many as 10 naturalized internationals in the team, and the overall strength was significantly improved.
Goalkeepers Yan Junling and Liu Dianzuo are in training. The national football team plays Australia and Indonesia, and the focus should be on the overall defensive level.
Speaking about the third and fourth games, Ivankovic said: "The next game is against Australia, who are World Cup regulars, they are definitely the favourites in the game, we have to play our game well and try to be the best we can be." Indonesia has carried out large-scale naturalization, there are 8 to 10 naturalized people, and we cannot take them lightly. We are in a tough group and our national team is going through the process of changing between the old and the new, and we have to try to play our best in each game and get as many points as possible. ”
As the captain, Wu Lei, who is still recovering from injury, was interviewed by the media: "There are many strikers in the national team, and everyone's characteristics are different. Australia are better than us and they are at home, but we have a better mentality and expect the team to play and not think so much. In many previous games, everyone's ideological baggage was relatively heavy, which would affect the performance on the field. ”
The head coach of the national football team, Ivankovic, needs to prove himself.
As of October 3, Ivankovic has coached the national football team to play 6 official matches, with only 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses.
On October 4, the Chinese national men's football team trained at Shanghai Century Park.
Wu Lei also believes that now is not the time to calculate the score, "There are still 8 games to play, and the top four in the group have a chance to enter the next round." We need to take it one game at a time and at the end of the day we look back and maybe one point is important. We have to play every game and even though we lost the first two games, it doesn't mean we have no hope at all. ”
In the eyes of some insiders, although the national football coach Ivankovic stayed, the two defeats in the previous round of 18, especially his car accident-style on-the-spot adjustment, made it difficult for him to get the full trust of the locker room. The opponent Australia team has just changed its manager, and it must want to play "changing coaches like changing knives" at home; The strength of the Indonesian team has increased greatly, and the slogan of "defeating the Chinese team" has been clearly proposed. If Ivankovic does not improve and change in tactical design, on-the-spot command and other aspects, the national football team will most likely encounter a "four consecutive defeats" that are more embarrassing than "0-7".
(Source: Shangguan News, Author: Bing)