Original title: The Saudi national football team re-launched its defensive formation as a guest tomorrow morning
At 1 a.m. Beijing time on the 13th, the Chinese team will be a guest at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to challenge the Saudi Arabian team, which has won three consecutive victories in the fourth round of the Qatar World Preliminary Asian Round of 12. Faced with the strong strength of the opponent and the home team fans of no less than 40,000, the challenges and difficulties encountered by the Chinese team in this campaign can be imagined. However, after defeating the Vietnam team in the last round, the whole team was greatly encouraged, and every member of the team will not give up fighting for points. According to a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily, considering the Saudi team’s outstanding personal ability and the overall offensive power of the entire team, the Chinese team is likely to re-launch the defensive battlefield in this round of competition.
The two teams have faced each other for 17 times, the Chinese team’s record is at a disadvantage
According to the official website of FIFA, Saudi Arabia and China are currently ranked 56th and 75th in the world respectively. Within the AFC, the two teams are ranked 6th and 9th respectively. Judging from the three rounds of the top 12 matches that have ended, the gap in the international ranking objectively reflects the current gap in the strength of the two teams.
Statistics show that China and Saudi Arabia have faced each other 17 times in history, and the Chinese team has a record of 6 wins, 4 draws and 7 losses. In the last 10 clashes between the two sides, the Chinese team has only achieved 2 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses, which is at a disadvantage. The most recent match between the two sides took place in the Asian Cup group stage in January 2015, when the Chinese team defeated their opponent by one goal. The most recent match between the two sides in the world preliminaries took place during the French World Cup qualifiers Asian Top 10 in the second half of 1997. At that time, the Chinese team defeated their opponents 1-0 at home and drew 1-1 at away.
In the first three rounds of this year’s top 12 games, the Saudi team has won the Vietnam team at home, the Oman team away, and the Japanese team at home. It is understood that combined with the game video and other information, the Chinese coaching staff has done an in-depth study on the technical and tactical characteristics of the Saudi team, and concluded that this team has players with outstanding personal abilities on all lines. , And the turnover rate is always controlled in a low range, the whole team can maintain sufficient physical energy during most of the game to ensure a high rate of offensive and defensive conversion. Therefore, how to restrain the opponent’s speed advantage has become an important issue for the Chinese team in the near future.
The opponents are not only the Saudi team, but also the home team fans and hot and humid weather.
What tactics the Chinese team will adopt to deal with the Saudi team, the answer to this question is difficult to find through the team’s only two pre-match training in Jeddah. However, in the second round of the top 12 competition, the Chinese team used to choose “strategic defense.” Although the Chinese team still lost a small goal to the Japanese team in the end, the five-backs and three-backs greatly strengthened the Chinese team. Line of defense. If you do better in the defensive details, then the Chinese team has a chance to keep the tie.
The opponents of the Chinese team in this game are not only the Saudi team on the field, but also no less than 40,000 home team fans and the local hot and humid weather. It is understood that as of October 10, more than 40,000 people have booked tickets for the China and Saudi Arabia matches through the official channels provided by the Saudi Football Association. The game site will undoubtedly become the “devil’s home” of the Saudi team. After the last round of the match, the Japanese team captain Yoshida Ma was also angered by Saudi fans has spread throughout the football scene, so the Chinese team will inevitably bear pressure from the home team fans during the game.
The local hot and humid weather also tested the Chinese team. Although the temperature in Jeddah is almost the same as in Sharjah, some members of the Chinese delegation still feel that the humidity outside Jeddah is relatively higher. During the match between China and Vietnam, the Chinese team was once ahead of two goals and was chased by their opponents for two consecutive goals. This is to a certain extent related to the excessive physical exertion of the international footballers due to the sweltering weather. “The physical consumption is too great, and the players’ attention will inevitably be insufficient, so mistakes may occur.” This is a summary made by a member of the delegation after the game. And this time as a guest in Jeddah, facing the Saudi team, which is good at fighting in hot and humid weather and has more attacking power, the difficulties and pressures facing the Chinese team are undoubtedly greater.
The referee factor is also inevitable for the Chinese team. Although the 37-year-old Uzbekist Tantashev, the referee in charge of the game, has enforced the Chinese Super League AFC Champions League matches and the 2019 East Asian Cup National Football Team against the Japanese team in recent years, but compared to the top 40 and 12. The referee who enforced the national football match in the first three rounds of the strong match is still relatively unfamiliar to the Chinese team. Prior to this, Tantashev had acted as the referee in the first round of the first round of Saudi Arabia’s home game against Vietnam, and awarded two penalty kicks to the Saudi team during the game. One penalty kick was controversial. . The Saudi team’s ability to reverse and win, to a certain extent, also benefited from the controversial penalty.
The Chinese team went lightly, 500 fans helped out
It is also understood that about 500 fans of the Chinese team will go to the scene to help out. Encouraged by the victory over Vietnam in the last round, the morale of the Chinese team is currently booming, and the whole team is ready to compete for points. It is worth noting that the Chinese team has now scored 3 points, which is better than the record of only 1 point in the first 4 rounds of the last 12 finals. Therefore, no matter what the result of this game is, it will not constitute a devastating blow to the Chinese team. In other words, the Chinese team can play lightly in this game and throw the pressure on their opponents.
Of course, since the Chinese team will collectively return to China for rest after this campaign, and is expected to participate in the two top 12 home games in Suzhou in November, the team’s generals are still very eager to be unbeaten in Saudi Arabia, with relatively ideal scores and Confidence returns to the motherland.
Prepare for war
Jeddah’s first practice
All 32 internationals are present
At 0:30 am on the 11th, Beijing time, the Chinese men’s football team went to the Saudi Ittihad club training base for the first outdoor training after arriving in Jeddah. All 32 international players including Zhu Chenjie and Li Lei were present. As the training ground is “ventilated from all sides”, the Chinese team did not arrange group confrontation in this training field. It can be seen that the whole team is cautious about the game against Saudi Arabia in the early hours of the 13th.
Since the Chinese team arrived in Jeddah on the afternoon of the 9th local time, they must undergo nucleic acid testing in accordance with local epidemic prevention regulations and undergo isolation and observation for a certain period of time. Therefore, the entire team was unable to conduct outdoor training that night. In this way, the whole team had only two outdoor training opportunities before the visit to the Saudi team. The first time it was arranged in the Etihad Club training base on the evening of the 10th local time, and the second training was the evening of the 11th local time. The venue adaptation training will be arranged at the competition venue King Abdullah Sports City Stadium. The Chinese team therefore chose to station in the Asila Hotel, which is relatively close to the venue.
For the Etihad Club, most of the members of the Chinese team and the Chinese Football Association working group are relatively unfamiliar, but the head coach Li Tie is more familiar with it. In September 2012, the Evergrande team played in Jeddah in the first round of the quarter-final match of the AFC Champions League with Etihad. The result was a 2-4 defeat. Li Tie was Lippi’s assistant at the time. Although Zhang Linpeng, an active international footballer, was also in Evergrande, he was suspended due to accumulating yellow cards and was unable to compete here with the team.
For the Chinese team, it is imperative to adjust the state and improve the formation as soon as possible. What is gratifying is that the 32 internationals who arrived in Jeddah with the team all appeared in the training field of the Etihad Club on the evening of the 10th. The defender Zhu Chenjie, who had been stitched due to a traumatic injury, also appeared in the team’s joint training lineup. In fact, the day before the team moved to Jeddah on the 8th, Zhu Chenjie had already participated in outdoor training with his teammates who were absent from the Chinese and Vietnamese games.
The goalkeeper Wang Dalei, who was absent from China and Vietnam due to a recurrence of a back injury, has also recovered, so he participated in the team’s first training in Jeddah. Left-back Li Lei is currently in good physical condition. Since he has experienced a relatively long recovery time before this, Jeddah’s first training session was accompanied by a team doctor to perform recovery training alone.
The reason why Hao Junmin went to the sideline to practice alone was because he had muscle tightening after the game between China and Vietnam, and the coaching staff did not arrange him to participate in high-intensity joint training for the sake of protecting him. As for Zhang Yuning, who was replaced due to injury in the China-Vietnam match, he is now “full of blood and resurrected” and he can continue to play as the main force.
The first training of the national football team in Jeddah lasted for an hour and a half. They did not arrange group confrontation training. This is because the closed conditions of the venue for the team training are not ideal and it is easy to be spied on the military situation. Therefore, the Chinese team consciously conservative tactics in training. secret.
opponent
No longer add “newcomers” against the Chinese team
When the Chinese team fully prepared for the away game with the Saudi team in the 4th round of the top 12, the Saudi team as the opponent was also preparing for the road quickly. It is understood that although the left assaulter Dosari was injured during the game on behalf of the club team, the Saudi coach Leonard does not intend to add the “newcomer.” For the game against the Chinese team, Leonard and his players firmly believe that they can score all 3 points.
On the evening of October 7th, local time, the Saudi team defeated their rival Japan 1-0 at home in Jeddah, resulting in a three-game winning streak. The next day, although the whole team did not conduct outdoor training, in order to tighten the fighting nerves of the players, coach Leonard only allowed them a few hours of free time. All members must return on the evening of the 8th local time as required. station.
On the 9th, when the Chinese team that had arrived at the hotel underwent nucleic acid testing and quarantined observation in the hotel, the Saudi team returned to the training ground that night. It is reported that during the training process, the head coach Leonard arranged for the main players participating in the Saudi and Japanese competitions to undergo recovery training, and the substitute players would normally conduct other technical and tactical training.
Saudi winger Fahd, who made his debut in the 7th game, did not participate in the joint training, but jogged on the sidelines. In the game between Saudi Arabia and Japan, he was substituted shortly before the final due to a thigh muscle strain.
The coaching staff of the Chinese team is no stranger to this player. In February 2013, when the Chinese team was a guest with the Saudi team in the first round of the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers, Fahd scored the first goal of the team, and the other Saudi player who participated in the game that year was the captain Farai . In addition, the Saudi midfielder Ali Hassan, who missed the last round due to injury, has returned to the team and participated in joint training.
According to the official data released by the Saudi Football Association, this match between China and Saudi Arabia will be the ninth game that the Saudi team will participate in at King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah. In the previous 8 games, the Saudi team had an undefeated record of 7 wins and 1 draw. The only team that made a draw in this field was the Australian team.
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Liu Binbin: We have made corresponding deployments against the Saudi team
At 7:30 pm on October 10th, local time, the Chinese team went to the training ground of the Etihad Football Club for the first outdoor training after arriving in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Before the training began, the team’s winger Liu Binbin accepted an interview with the media.
Liu Binbin first said: “As a player, we must go all out, take every training session seriously, maintain a good physical condition, and be ready to play at any time.” For the third round of the top 12 match between the national football team and the Vietnam team, Liu Binbin made a comment on his performance. He said, “The coach asked me to play up my own characteristics, attack the opponent’s defense, try to counter-rob, echo with my teammates, and rob more. It should be said that the effect in the game is still good.”
After a 3-2 victory over the Vietnam team, the Chinese team was greatly encouraged after the first victory of the top 12 matches. Liu Binbin has a deep understanding of this. He said, “This will help us prepare for the next game. We have been actively preparing for the game against Saudi Arabia in the last two days. We have also watched the video of our opponents. The Saudi team is a very good team, and we are currently doing it accordingly. We will strengthen some details and try our best to play the game well.”
Of course, Liu Binbin also said that through the Sino-Vietnamese competition, the whole team still recognized many shortcomings of its own existence. He said, “There are areas that need to be improved, and we have to seriously summarize and make the team stronger.”
Speaking of being replaced midway during the game between China and Vietnam, Liu Binbin commented: “Everyone must be prepared for the game. Do your best.”
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China-Saudi Arabia competition
50,000 tickets were snapped up
On October 11, news came from Jeddah that because the game is completely open to fans on site and the price of a single ticket is only 25 yuan, 50,000 tickets have been snapped up by fans. The Chinese team will accept severe challenges in such a “devil’s stadium”.
In fact, in the first round of the top 12 match between Saudi Arabia and Vietnam in early September, that is, during the first home match of the top 12 match of the Saudi team, the Saudi Football Association used 30% as the highest seat in accordance with the relevant regulations of the national government. The rate is open to spectators for the game, so Riyadh Mol Sol Park Stadium, which can accommodate 25,000 spectators, has a total of more than 8,300 spectators. On October 7, the King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, which hosted the game between Saudi Arabia and Japan, which can accommodate 62,000 spectators, swarmed 51,218 people.
It is understood that for the upcoming China-Saudi Arabian match, the Saudi Football Association has officially launched the official public sale of match tickets through the designated website on October 9.
It is understood that the price of a single ticket for this game is 15 Saudi Riyals (approximately RMB 25). For the sake of epidemic prevention work, the organizers of the event require that all ticket buyers must submit a certificate of inoculation with the new crown vaccine before purchasing tickets. At the same time, they must also submit a certificate of qualified nucleic acid testing. All spectators will enter the venue with electronic tickets.
This group of articles/Reporter Xiao Zhe, Coordinator/Wang Haozhou
Photo courtesy/Visual China
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