In July 2022, Jankovic led the national football selection team to the East Asian Cup.Photo courtesy of Visual China
According to the adjusted plan last week, the new head coach of the national football team, Serbian Jankovic, will fly directly from Dubai to Haikou on February 28, and will make his debut at the Mission Hills International Football Base in Haikou the next day. On March 2, the national team under Jankovic will present the content of the first training session of this period in the form of an open class, and on March 23 and March 26, they will challenge the New Zealand team for two warm-up matches , Jankovic will start to run-in with the team for actual combat drills.
It should come sooner or later, not to mention the national football coach who has been “stretched” for nearly 3 months.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar came to an end on December 18 last year. Many head coaches who met the Chinese Football Association’s coach selection criteria had expired with their original coaching team contracts. However, during the contact process, there were always various twists and turns in the two-way selection. Another example is the personnel changes of the Chinese Football Association itself in the anti-counterfeiting and anti-corruption incident. Finally, before the time for the national football player training, the Chinese Football Association decided to adopt an internal guarantee plan to tap the potential and will have coached the Asian Games for three years. Qi “promoted” to the national team, and at the same time employed Serbian fellow Djurjevic recommended by Jankovic as the head coach of the Asian Games to complete the replacement.
The guarantee plan for promoting Jankovic has been determined as early as the early stage of coach selection, but the National Management Department of the Chinese Football Association has hesitated for a long time for Jankovic to “exclusively manage the national football or take care of the national football and the Asian Games team”. After doubling the risk of taking into account, it is clear that Jankovic is full-time for the national football team.
The most important reason why Jankovic became the guaranteed candidate is that during his five-year coaching period in China, his rigorous training attitude and coaching style that emphasizes training intensity, physical fitness and confrontation have won the unanimous approval of players and partners. In other words, the 51-year-old golden age of coaching ensures that he can take the lead on the training ground and have enough motivation and energy to point out the weakest details of Chinese players. The “post-70s” Jankovic’s training principle of giving priority to physical fitness also fully complies with the preparation requirements put forward by the State Sports General Administration for the national team.
“More important than skills is character. I need players who can endure hardships and sacrifice for the team. Only players with a strong sense of honor will not be afraid of opponents and maintain aggressiveness on the court. So my rule is Physical fitness and character, my players must be willing to give everything for the team.” Jankovic came to China in 2018 to coach the 1999 age group team (at that time, the U19 national football team became the U21 national football team for the Hangzhou Asian Games two years later, and the Hangzhou Asian Games was postponed Held in 1 year, the age structure of the team will not be affected), his stern attitude left a deep impression on the industry, “I will not let players who do not meet my requirements (such as players with a body fat rate of more than 10%) play the game .”
Chinese football does not have the confidence and qualifications not to choose a non-famous coach, and the survey results of several professional football forums show that more than half of the fans who participated in the voting have tried to look at this special coach of Chinese football in a special period with a normal heart. After all, the gains and losses of Chinese football’s previous three World Cup cycle preparations and campaigns are still vivid.
Since advancing to the World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002, the involvement of foreign teachers in the national football team in the past ten years has been in a special period: the Spaniard Camacho took office in 2011 because the team coached by the local coach failed to qualify for the Asian Cup team, and Wanda Group was angry. Inject capital to “invite world famous coaches”; Frenchman Perrin took office in 2014 because of the aftershock of the Camacho incident and did nothing in the World Cup qualifiers; Italian Lippi took office in 2016 to “fight the fire” and was in the top 12 of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers The critical moment when only 1 point was accumulated in 4 games before the game, and the Chinese Football Association only needs to pay 20% of the salary of the World Cup champion coach (the remaining 80% is paid by Evergrande Group).
Therefore, Jankovic’s usual resume is not a blemish. Compared with “special”, Chinese football needs “normal” more.
According to the reporter’s understanding, the Asian Games players who are training overseas in Dubai expressed their dismay for Jankovic’s departure, although Jankovic’s training volume made them complain: “From Monday to Saturday, there are two training sessions per day. Practice half day and rest half day on Sunday, and the rhythm of each class is also very fast, and it is very tiring to practice with him.” The Asian Games team with Dai Weijun, Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Shenglong, Tao Qianglong and other players in the 1999 and 2000 age groups as the core has a “bright” prospect. , at least in the Asian Games, this team has the right time, place and advantages, and because most of the Asian football teams do not pay too much attention to the Asian Games, most of them focus on the training of young players, but Jankovic led the national football team to complete the competition. The arduousness of the qualifying task is no less than “the most difficult in history”.
In July this year, FIFA will hold the 2026 World Cup continental qualifier group draw ceremony. The World Cup has decided to expand the army in 2026. The Asian qualifiers will be adjusted to 3 main stages. The national football team will directly enter the second stage of the top 36 matches (47 member units under the AFC). The top 36 matches are expected to be divided into 9 groups. The top two teams in each group will enter the round of 18 in the third stage.
The 6 games of the top 36 matches of the national football team will be held on November 16, 2023, November 21, 2024, March 21, March 26, June 6, and June 11, based on the current Asian ranking of the national football team. And the overall strength analysis, there is obviously a risk of not being able to advance to the top 18 through the top 36 – there is no certainty of winning against the third-tier Asian team – this means that Jankovic’s first test needs to ensure that the national football team is at 6 Win the right to qualify for the group in the top 36 matches, otherwise the national football team cannot rule out the possibility of changing coaches in the middle of the top 36 matches. In fact, the top 18 is the real battlefield for Asian teams to hit the World Cup: the top 18 is divided into 3 groups with 6 teams in each group, and the top two teams in each group qualify directly (8.5 places in the Asian region), and the third place in each group A total of 6 teams from the 1st and 4th places will enter the play-offs, and there will be two tickets to qualify for the play-offs. The 3rd and 4th teams will also compete for the intercontinental play-off qualification.
Pragmatism must be a prerequisite for the national football team to climb from the bottom.
For Jankovic, due to the increase in the number of games in this round of World Cup qualifiers (calculated by straight-through qualifications, the previous 8 top 40 games and 10 top 12 games, now 6 top 36 games and 10 games 18 strong match and 4 play-offs) and the more complicated grouping form has led to the difficulty of qualifying for the national football team. The determination is clearer.Return to Sohu to see more
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