National football team regroups in Haikou today
There will be a warm-up match with the Chinese Super League team and the U23 men’s football team
According to the plan, the Chinese men’s football team will start a new training session in Haikou City on March 3 to prepare for the final two rounds of the Qatar World Preliminary Asian Top 12 which will be held in late March.
Although the Chinese team has missed the Qatar World Cup finals two rounds ahead of schedule after the first loss to Vietnam in the 8th round, the team’s preparations have turned to the preparations for the 2023 Asian Cup. When the team is facing the replacement of personnel, it is the goal of the team to do the “finishing” work of this top 12 competition to avoid further collapse. It is understood that during the preparation period of the national football team in Haikou, it will have a warm-up match with some Chinese Super League teams and U23 national football teams who are preparing for the competition there during the same period. The team’s departure time for this westward expedition has therefore been extended from March 10 to 17. The team’s round-trip travel plan for this westward expedition has also been finalized.
It is understood that the reason for the change in schedule is related to factors such as the epidemic. The Chinese team returned to China on February 3 after the 8th round of the top 12 away match against the Vietnamese team on February 1. According to the epidemic prevention regulations, the entire delegation did not officially lift the collective isolation until February 24. Disbanded in Shanghai on the same day. However, due to the recent emergence of new epidemics in different provinces and cities in China and the different epidemic prevention policies in various places, some players were forced to postpone their return to various places. Even if some players and delegation members return to their respective territories, they need to continue to implement epidemic prevention regulations such as “home isolation”. Considering that such people need to rest and reunite with their families after being released from isolation, after consultation, the national football coach and management team agreed that some players and staff should delay reporting to Haikou for a few days.
Some team members, including head coach Li Xiaopeng, rushed to Hainan in advance from Shanghai in order to reduce the risk of the epidemic during the journey and avoid delaying the preparations for the war. As of the afternoon of March 2, a few team members such as player Dai Weijun have arrived at the National Football Team’s resident hotel in Haikou City, and Spanish assistant Pep will also leave Shanghai to Haikou on the evening of the 2nd ahead of schedule.
Another reason for the delay of the national football expedition to the west is that it is difficult to implement the warm-up match after the team leaves the country, and some players have been delayed for a few days to arrive at the team. Therefore, the coaching staff hopes to make the team’s preparation time in Haikou appropriate. Lengthen, thus arranging several warm-up games for the team.
It is understood that before the national football concentration, Chinese Super League teams such as Changchun Yatai Team and Wuhan Three Towns Team have arrived in Haikou one after another to prepare for the game. The 1999 U23 national football team, led by Serbian coach Jankovic, will also prepare simultaneously with the national football team, and then go to the United Arab Emirates on the same journey to participate in the “Dubai Cup” International Football Invitational Tournament.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned from the national football team that the team will have no less than two warm-up matches during their stay in Haikou. The candidates for the warm-up opponents include the Chinese Super League teams and U23 national football teams that are preparing locally. In fact, using such “internal communication”, the national football coach Li Xiaopeng and the U23 national football coach Jankovic will also have an in-depth understanding of the personnel situation of the two teams, and the personnel exchanges between the two teams will be relatively smooth. The Chinese team and the U23 national football team are initially scheduled to leave Haikou on March 17 and fly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and then the national football team will travel to Sharjah, where the 9th round of the top 12 competition is held. After the “home” game against Saudi Arabia on the evening of March 24, local time, the entire team left Sharjah on the 25th and flew to Muscat, Oman. After visiting Oman on the evening of the 29th local time, the team left Muscat and returned to Dubai on the 30th. Since the last match of the U23 National Football Team’s current “Dubai Cup” is also scheduled to be played on March 29, the two teams will leave for China together on March 31. After entering from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the two teams will be collectively transferred to Suzhou for a “14+7” day quarantine.
Text/Co-ordinator by our reporter Xiao Xun/Wang Haozhou