cctv did not broadcast the world cup qualifiers against saudi arabia at 20:00 today. i hope the chinese national football team will do its best to grab points.
2024-09-10
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at 20:00 on september 10, the chinese national football team will return to their home court to face the traditional asian powerhouse saudi arabia at the dalian soar bay football stadium in the second round of the 2026 world cup asian qualifiers. after suffering a painful 0:7 defeat in the first round, the chinese national football team must do their best to grab points in this game. there is no other choice.
the chinese national football team trains before the match. photo by geng hui, a reporter from hebei daily
the first round of defeat did not hinder the "overall strategy"
if the chinese national football team cannot snatch at least one point from the saudi team today, let alone qualifying for the world cup finals, even qualifying for the play-offs will probably be just a "theoretical hope."
in the last away game against japan, the chinese national football team lost a record-breaking 0:7, which broke the bottom line of the fans and once again put themselves in the midst of all the saliva. however, after calming down and carefully analyzing it, it was just a "tactical defeat" and it did not affect the "overall strategy". as early as when the chinese national football team "thanked god and people" to catch the last train of the top 18 and was listed as a fifth-tier team, neither the media nor the fans dared to think about directly qualifying with the top two in the group. the vast majority of the goals were just to "strive for the fourth place in the group to participate in the play-offs", and gave a specific strategy - against japan, saudi arabia and australia, lose less away games and win at home; try to grab points from bahrain and indonesia. in other words, the last round of games was a "planned defeat", but the final direction was greatly out of control, coupled with the negative mentality of the chinese national football team members "indifferent" and "lying down and waiting to die", which triggered the hot search.
in addition to its own lack of strength, the schedule of the chinese national football team is not friendly enough. in the 10 rounds of games, there are no consecutive home or away games, but a rhythm of one home and one away. the main competitors, indonesia and bahrain, both have 2 consecutive home games. among them, indonesia played in rounds 5-6 and 8-9 respectively, and played away against australia, which is not far away, in the 7th round. bahrain played in rounds 2-3 and 5-6, and played away against neighboring saudi arabia in the 4th round. coincidentally, the chinese national football team just caught up with the opponent's consecutive home games, which invisibly increased the difficulty of grabbing points. head coach ivankovic also said that the current bahrain and indonesian teams cannot be underestimated and need to be dealt with with all their strength.
because of this, the match between the chinese national football team and saudi arabia at home is even more crucial. at yesterday's pre-match press conference, goalkeeper wang dalei attended as a player representative, which means he will still start in today's game. he said: "to be honest, i feel a little ashamed to be sitting here. i have an unshirkable responsibility for the last defeat. with the help of the head coach in the past two days, we have gradually come out of the haze. i hope the whole team will be in high spirits and play a wonderful game and not disappoint the fans again."
stop obsessing over historical data
the reason why this chinese national football team, which is regarded as the "weakest in history", is still favored to "make an upset" and grab points just four days after the 0:7 defeat, is mainly due to two reasons. one is that they are more adapted to the technical and tactical style of the saudi team, and the other is that in the history of the world cup qualifiers, their record is 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, which means they have an "absolute advantage".
from the 1981 world cup qualifiers, when china defeated saudi arabia twice, to the 1997 top 10, china’s national football team suffered four consecutive defeats against this traditional powerhouse. it was not until the last qualifiers that saudi arabia ended its embarrassing streak of “never winning against china” at home. but the last time china’s national football team defeated saudi arabia was also in the 1997 top 10. times have changed. being obsessed with historical data is like looking for a sword in a boat and deceiving oneself. moreover, the two “magic weapons” that china relied on to defeat saudi arabia in the past—high-altitude bombing and rapid counterattacks—are no longer visible in this national football team. the only thing of some reference value is the 1 draw and 1 loss in the last world cup qualifiers. in terms of the main data, china’s national football team was at a disadvantage. in the draw, there were only 2 shots, both of which occurred after 80 minutes.
compared with the last world cup qualifiers, the overall strength of this saudi team has been significantly improved. their players are basically from the four major domestic clubs, and the forward line is extremely luxurious. blancan, who can play multiple positions, once broke the goal of the chinese national football team in the last world cup qualifiers. he is not inferior to former premier league players such as firmino and mahrez in the club; dawasari and shehri are the heroes who defeated the argentina team in the 2022 world cup. "the chinese team is very strong. this game will be a tough battle. our goal is to score points." shehri said. saudi coach mancini said frankly that they conducted targeted intensive training before the game. "the team needs to improve its finishing ability. if we can score five or six goals in a game, it will be very beneficial."
facing the aggressive saudi team, chinese national football coach ivankovic was very calm. he said that the players have recovered physically and mentally, and only liu yang is injured and unable to play. as for whether the lineup or tactics will be adjusted, he said: "we have formed a certain style of play, which cannot be changed overnight, and it is impossible to simply emphasize offense or defense. i hope that the players can play in the positions familiar to the club as much as possible and play to their own characteristics. with so many fans supporting us, we must get out of the trough and strive for better results with good performance."
head coach ivankovic and goalkeeper wang dalei (right). photo by hebei daily reporter geng hui
tickets are still not sold out
the area around dalian soyuwan football stadium was deserted yesterday. there were no fans who had come to check out the stadium in advance, nor were there any "scalpers" buying tickets at high prices. this seemed to confirm previous rumors - a 0:7 defeat dampened the enthusiasm of many fans.
this has also been confirmed by a professional ticketing website. the tickets for this game are divided into six levels, ranging from 280 yuan to 1,680 yuan. at around 16:00 yesterday, in addition to the two "low-priced" levels of 280 yuan and 480 yuan, and the vip ticket of 1,680 yuan, the three levels of 780 yuan, 1,180 yuan and 1,380 yuan were still available. at 21:00, the 1,380 yuan level showed "out of stock registration", while the 780 yuan and 1,180 yuan levels were still available. this situation was almost unimaginable in previous national football matches. what's more interesting is that the tickets for the china league one match between dalian yingbo and shijiazhuang kungfu, which will be held on the same field this sunday, have already been sold out. "with such poor results and such high ticket prices, plus the expenses of taking leave and food, accommodation and transportation, it will cost at least 2,000 yuan. why do we have to spend money to suffer?" more than one fan said. however, there are signs that fans from all over the country are rushing to dalian. in addition, cctv will not broadcast the game live, so there will basically be no large areas of empty seats at the soyuz bay football stadium tonight.
in contrast, the enthusiasm of the media interviews was not affected at all, and it can even be described as "hot". at the saudi team's pre-match press conference, the press conference hall, which was large enough, had few empty seats, and the chinese national football team's press conference was even more crowded. such a lineup surprised ivankovic, "i was very excited to see so many media. this is our first home stadium, and it is in the football city. i hope to bring you a good return." (reporter xuguang of zonglan news reported from dalian)
