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on the evening of september 10, the final whistle blew, and the dalian soaring bay football stadium responded with a heavy sigh. the chinese men's football team was reversed by the saudi team in the second round of the 2026 world cup asian qualifiers, and suffered two consecutive defeats with a score of 1:2.

leading after 14 minutes of the game, the opponent had one player sent off in the 19th minute. the chinese team had a fantastic start, but still ended up on the losing side.in this game where the chinese team should have won points, the on-the-spot command of the chinese head coach ivankovic cannot be blamed.

in the first half, china's less than 30% ball possession rate already showed some problems. saudi arabia, with one less player, still controlled the tempo on the field, and the number of threatening balls and passes was also better than that of the chinese national team. after the two sides ended in a 1:1 draw, china only made one passive adjustment in the second half, replacing jiang guangtai who was injured in the first half with wang shangyuan.perhaps the stalemate in the first half made the conservative ivankovic lack the ambition to win. the chinese team's offense in the second half still seemed simple and lacked structure, and they did not show any advantage in numbers.

in the second half, several chinese players ran out of energy and the situation became rather passive, but ivankovic still did not make any adjustments and simply replaced xie wenneng who was unable to continue with the game with huang zhengyu.the coaching staff did not make any proactive adjustments to send out signals: should they defend one point or try their best to get three points.it was not until the saudi team scored the go-ahead goal in the 90th minute that the chinese team paid a heavy price for the coaching staff's timidity and mishandling.

if a general is incompetent, the whole army will be exhausted.in this game, the chinese team basically got out of the shadow of the disastrous defeat in the first round and showed a good mental outlook on the field. however, due to improper command by the head coach, they failed to get a single point despite the good situation.after 10 group matches, the chinese team, which lost two games in a row, is already at the bottom.neither a crushing defeat nor a tragic reversal is inevitable, and someone should stand up and take responsibility now.