Yesterday (December 19), the day after arriving in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the Chinese men's football team immediately started two training sessions a day. There are still three weeks to go before the Qatar Asian Cup, and the national football team is also racing against time to adjust its state.
On the evening of the 18th, the national football team entered the base camp of this training camp. The next morning, they had their first post-arrival training session at the resident hotel gym. Then, the whole team had an outdoor training session in the afternoon. Except for Wu Shaocong, who has not returned to the team for the time being, the remaining 25 players have participated in two training sessions a day, and there are no obvious injuries at present. Two training sessions were arranged on the first training day, which also showed the team's determination to make a difference in the Asian Cup. However, although there were a lot of trainings, the intensity of the training was not great, considering that the players had just gone on vacation and had a long flight. For example, the training time in the morning is only 50 minutes, and the training in the afternoon is more about getting the players to adjust their condition.
Of course, this rhythm will not last long. It is understood that the next week will be a period of physical preparation before the national football team enters the stage of technical and tactical drills, during which the training intensity will gradually increase.
In addition, the national football team has confirmed that it will play warm-up matches with a local second-tier club team in the United Arab Emirates and the Oman national team on the 25th and 29th of this month, and the remaining two warm-up opponents are to be determined. From the coaching staff's point of view, they very much hope to play warm-up matches against national teams such as Tajikistan and Lebanon, whose technical and tactical styles are similar to those in the Asian Cup.
While the national football team is actively preparing for the game, the Tajikistan team and the Lebanese team in Group A have also been stationed at the training base to begin the final stage of preparation for the Asian Cup. And the host Qatar team, not to mention, has long been in the thick of the battle.
The first opponent of the national football team, Tajikistan, completed the assembly on the 16th, and plans to play warm-up matches with many teams, including Vietnam, during the preparation period. It is worth mentioning that since losing 1-5 to Uzbekistan in the first Central Asian Cup in June this year, the Tajikistan team has been unbeaten in recent international matches and is in very good form.
The second opponent of the national football team, Lebanon, also officially assembled yesterday, and in the 29-man list announced by the new coach, many players abandoned by the previous two coaches have returned to the team. In addition, although the Lebanese team is ranked 107th in the world and is not a strong team, they have reached the third stage of the round of 12 in the last two World Preliminary Championships.
Several opponents in the group stage of the national football team should not be taken lightly. Wu Xi, a veteran who represented the Chinese team in the Asian Cup for the third time, said: "Qatar and Lebanon are old rivals, Tajikistan plays less, they are both very strong teams, we still have to lower our profile and fight for each opponent." ”
*: Beijing Evening News.