Reporter Chen Yong reports 3 days to go! At 2:15 in the early morning of the 21st Beijing time (the evening of the 20th local time), in the round of 18 of the World Preliminaries, the national football team will play against Saudi Arabia away, with 6 points for both teams, the difference is that the national football team has 2 wins, 0 draws and 4 losses, and Saudi Arabia has 1 win, 3 draws and 2 losses.At present, the outside world is concerned about whether the state of the national football team can be guaranteed after 17 days of intensive training?

At present, although the points are the same, the national football team as a whole is slightly insufficient. In terms of goals scored and conceded, Saudi Arabia scored 3 goals and conceded 6 goals (including 2 goals against the national football team), while the national football team scored 6 goals and conceded 16 goals. Although the number of goals scored by the national football team is twice that of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia has 66% more shots than the national football team during the entire World Preliminary Tournament, and the ball possession rate is much higher than that of the national football team, not to mention the number of goals conceded, the round of 18 is 6 to 16, and the entire World Preliminary Tournament is as high as 9 to 25. Interestingly, the number of long passes of the two teams ranks among the top three, the national football team ranks first Saudi Arabia third, and the success rate of one-on-one scrambles, Saudi Arabia and the national football team rank in the top two.

In the early morning of the 16th, Beijing time, the national football team played a warm-up match in Dubai and Kuwait, and the game was completely closed.In this game, the starting lineup of the national football team is goalkeeper Wang Dalei, defenders Li Lei, Han Pengfei, Jiang Guangtai and Gao Zhunyi, midfielders Wang Shangyuan, Xie Wenneng, Wei Shihao and Cao Yongjing, and forwards Lin Liangming and Bai Helamu. In the end, the national football team won 3-1, and the goals were scored by Li Lei and Baihelamu, in addition, the opponent also scored an own goal.

In the second half of the game, the national football team rotated the lineup, but did not disclose relevant details, including the most closely watched situation of Serginho. This is actually easy to understand, after all, with new people joining, it is not easy for the Saudi side to gather intelligence.

Judging from the results, the state of the national football team is not bad. Kuwait are also a team in the round of 18, with 0 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses in Group B, and they are fifth with 4 points. Although the points are not much, they are ranked higher than the current national football team (sixth) in Group C, in addition, Kuwait has not won a game, but it has only lost two games, namely 0-4 to Oman and 1-3 to South Korea, two draws with Jordan in third place in Group B, and drawn with Iraq in second place in Group B and Palestine in sixth place.

Since it is also going to play the round of 18, Kuwait also attaches great importance to this warm-up match, which also reflects the current state of the national football team.

The competitive state of the national football team has always been of more concern to fans, mainly because the training camp began on March 3. The game was played in the early morning of March 21, Beijing time, with a 17-day gap, so the outside world had some doubts about the state of the national football team.

For the first 6 round of 18 matches, the competition time in September 2024 is September 5 and 10, and the assembly time of the national football team is August 23, and the training camp will last about two weeks. At that time, the national football team had intended to start training earlier, but due to the FA Cup reaching the quarter-final stage and the large number of participating international players, August 23 was finally chosen. In order to ensure a two-week training camp, the 24th round of the Chinese Super League, originally scheduled for August 24 and 25, was brought forward to July. However, in the two games in September, the national football team lost 0-7 to Japan away, and lost to Saudi Arabia 1-2 with one more player at home. At that time, the long-term training camp of the national football team had aroused doubts from the outside world.

In the round of 18 in October 2024, the national football team will assemble on October 3, and the game time will be on October 10 and 15, which is exactly a week, and the national football team will finally lose 1-3 away to Australia and defeat Indonesia 2-1 at home.

In the round of 18 in November 2024, the national football team will assemble on November 7, and the game time will be November 14 and 19, which is also a week, and in the end, the national football team defeated Bahrain 1-0 away and lost 1-3 to Japan at home.

At present, the international practice is that if it is in the league period, the interval between the league and the national team is about a week or less. On the other hand, a week or so is enough time for the players to maintain a stable competitive condition.

Of course, the record of the national football team depends on many levels, including the round of 18, the first 3 rounds of the national football team did not perform well, and the next 3 rounds performed well, which is related to the General Administration of Sports and the Chinese Football Association to strengthen the construction of the national team's style and give the national team comprehensive communication and incentives, which cannot prove that the national football team in September and the two-week training camp of the national football team are directly related. The one-week training camp is seamless, and it is natural to maintain a stable competitive state, but the time for building skills and tactics is shorter, and the longer-term training camp is conducive to the kneading of skills and tactics.

In any case, such doubts exist, but from a realistic point of view, it is true that the third round of the Chinese Super League cannot be carried out. Judging from the schedule, Shenhua only finished the AFC Champions League Elite League on the 12th, and the national football game is on the 21st, during which there are only 7 days, and other teams can play on the 15th or even earlier, but if Shenhua plays on the 15th, the interval between the AFC Champions League and the AFC Champions League is only 2 days, and if the game is played on the 16th, the interval between the game and the 20th is only 3 days. In fact, the national football team chose to play a warm-up match in the early morning of the 16th Beijing time, also to ensure the competitive state of the players, and in terms of game time, it was also as consistent as possible with the battle in the sand.

If the players maintain a positive mentality and have the game against Kuwait as a relay station for the competitive state, then the competitive state of the national football team should not be a big problem. Judging from the past few top 18 matches of the national football team, the mental outlook of the national football players is still trustworthy, and it is reported that the main leaders of the Chinese Football Association will come to the scene to cheer for the national football team.