The smoke of gunpowder over Longxing Stadium gradually dissipated, and the Chinese national football team’s World Cup qualifiers came to an end here. The 19-month marathon schedule has gone through 16 battles in all kinds of battles. During this period, there were both joy and excitement after surviving, as well as confusion and helplessness during continuous failures. The Chinese national football team once saw hope for the playoffs, but in the end they could only reap the bitter fruit of being eliminated early.
In spite of the outside opposition, insisting on using diamond midfield tactics and promoting young players under tremendous pressure, Ivankovic’s “iron-head” move became a clue throughout the World Cup. The “diamond” is broken, but the young players have accumulated experience in confronting strong enemies, becoming the only dawn of Chinese football in the dark night.
[Hiring an old coach is a helpless move, and the nightmare of the diamond midfield runs through it all the time]
Since the late Lippi era, how to complete the replacement task of new and old lines has become a problem that has plagued the coaches of the previous national football team. Yankovic, who has been deeply engaged in youth training for a long time, was once highly expected, but due to the unsuccessful development of the East Asian Cup, the young coach chose to continue to trust the veterans in the early stages of the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers, and was eventually dismissed with a disappointing record. The young foreign coaches could not bear the pressure, and the reputation of local coaches was eliminated in the last round of 12. The national football team finally welcomed Ivankovic, an “Asian football expert” in his seventies.
After taking office, he was tied by Singapore, and he could not defeat Thailand when he returned to his home court. There was no honeymoon period between Ivankovic and the national football team. The old coach insisted on using the diamond midfielder in a huge criticism, and repeatedly responded with extraordinary verbal remarks when facing the outside world criticism. This tense atmosphere ran through the entire World Cup qualifiers cycle.
From the last 12th match to the current 18th match, the strength of the national football team’s midfield continues to decline and is unable to control the “Ring Diamond”.
In the current era when 433 and 4231 and the three central defenders complement each other, there are very few coaches who dare to play the diamond midfield. From coaching Shandong Taishan and Persepolis to leading Oman to the World Cup three years ago, Ivankovic is a loyal fan of “Ring Diamond”. The Croatians will adjust the positions of the four midfielders according to the characteristics of their opponents. They should quickly adjust their thinking and playing style when switching between ball and no ball. These must be based on the players’ excellent passing and control ability, and these two elements are exactly what the national football team lacks the most.
Ivankovic lacks tolerance for players who have made mistakes, which has led to no one in the midfield of the national football team.
With the fading of Zheng Zhi, Hao Junmin and Wu Xi, the national football team’s skills are no longer competitive. They can still control the game in the top 36 stage. After entering the top 18 stage, they can only play “no ball”, and the configuration of the front midfielder seems to be very useless. After playing in the Chinese Super League for a long time, the national football players have become accustomed to the “one stop, two watch, three passes” style. They do not have the technology and physical fitness to support high-intensity events at the Asian level. The flexibility of the diamond midfielder is unable to play, but instead completely exposes the gap on both sides of the single midfielder to the opponent.
At a visit to Jakarta, the national football team’s diamond midfielder was completely destroyed by the opponent. Ivankovic’s final stubbornness, the national football team lost the game that should be won and lost hope of qualifying one round ahead of schedule.
The first group team has been fully Europeanized, and many second-rate teams rely on naturalized players to overtake. In the process of rapid development of Asian football, the national football team has some of the pace. The 90 minutes of the top 18 match are really difficult for the players. The main players’ physical fitness cannot support the entire game, and the substitute players are poor. Ivankovi In order to ensure the continuity of tactics, Qi could only delay the time of substitution as much as possible, leaving behind the infamous reputation of slow adjustment on the spot.
[The “iron-headed” coach will also adapt, and two victories are precious]
The first game of the 18th round, the diamond-shaped midfielder of the national football team quickly collapsed under the impact of Misaki Kaoru, Do Ariki and Kubo Kenyo. Ivankovic replaced the five defenders of the Gao Junyi in the second half, which led to an unbearable tragedy. This unsuccessful change of the team became a turning point in the national football team’s journey to the top 18.Ivankovic did not continue to waste time debugging the formation, but decided to work hard within the diamond midfield structure. Baihelamu, Xie Wenneng, Jiang Shenglong and others were entrusted with important tasks. The Chinese national football team gave up the battle for the ball and began to rely on defensive counterattack to resolve the opponent’s offense, and fought for the ball through the pressing of the midfield.
Zhang Yuning’s ability to fight and make walls in the center position is one of the few highlights in the national football team’s tactical system.
There are not many highlights at the technical level and the tacit understanding between players is insufficient. If the Chinese national football team wants to create advantages in the game with opponents of the same level, they can only highlight the role of key players. From defeating Vietnam in Sharjah in the last round of 12, to defeating Myanmar and Palestine in the warm-up match, to defeating Thailand away in the World Cup, the victory of the Chinese team was all driven by the center and Ivankovic continued to use the dual forward structure when Wu Lei was injured, and Zhang Yuning gave back the trust of the old coach with his outstanding performance.
In addition to formulating tactics around Zhang Yuning, Ivankovic also adopted a military strategy of building a “chimera” lineup, relying on the tacit understanding among the players of the Chinese Super League to improve the quality of the tactics. It is reasonable that players from Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan are valued. In the final stage of the match between the visiting Manama, 4 of the 11 players on the national football team were Guoan players and 5 Shenhua players. Bahrain players became inattentive after VAR created controversy. Ivankovic’s disciples seized the opportunity to make a high-quality attack and got a valuable three-pointer.
[Does not spare any effort in promoting new players, and the youth army becomes the only “legacy”]
In the last World Cup qualifiers, the joining of the naturalized gang gave people hope to strive for the World Cup. The youthfulness of the national football team was pressed, and relying on the experience of veterans to make a last-minute attempt has become a consensus among public opinion. After experiencing a disastrous defeat in the away game against Vietnam, the mission of “Naturalization One” ended, and the process of rejuvenation of the national football team was once again put on the agenda. An important reason why the Football Association chose Ivankovic was that the 70-year-old coach was about to retire and could deploy troops without worries and promote young players to complete the replacement of the new and old national football team.
The aging of the Chinese national football team has been going on for many years, and Ivankovic has completed the replacement of the old and new during his tenure.
Ivankovic’s tactical design and on-site adjustments are full of complaints, but the courage of the old coach to promote young players is commendable. Gao Tianyi and Wang Zhenao failed the test, while Jiang Shenglong, Xie Wenneng and Hu Hetao (and Baihe Lamu) grew up in the war. They all gained a huge boost of confidence in the process of creating goals, and by the late stage of the World Cup qualifiers, they had become the backbone of the national football team.
In the last match of Jankovic’s term, the average age of the starter of the national football team reached 29.8 years. In the round of 18, the life-and-death battle between visiting Jakarta, the average age of starting the national football team dropped to 27.7 years old. If Jiang Shenglong and Xie Wenn were not absent at the same time, this value would have continued to decline.
Han Jiaqi was injured, and Ivankovic did not promote a new player in the goalkeeper position. The future team of the national football team has surfaced.
Faced with the defender from the European League, Wang Yudong, who was the starter for the first time, performed well, and Liu Chengyu’s performance after he came on as a substitute was also recognized by public opinion. Two new stars of the national youth team seized the opportunity of “cross-level training”, and the national football team completed a remarkable replacement of the new and old under high pressure. In addition to these players who have already represented the national team, Ivankovic has recruited Jian Tao, Wumi Tijiang and Tao Qianglong many times. His assistant coaching team recently focused on Liao Jintao, Zhu Pengyu and Wei Xiangxin. The core team of the national football team to compete in the next World Cup cycle has surfaced.
[The uncensored jade has emerged and needs to be carved in urgent need of carving]
In the same group, there are world-class teams that have been deeply Europeanized, West Asia strong teams with distinctive characteristics, and Southeast Asian newcomers who have advanced strongly by naturalized players. The national football team has experienced the feeling of being in the World Cup in the journey of the top 18 games. The “original intention” when qualifying for the top 36 games had been achieved. The national football team was training the team while fighting with experts, touching the pulse of world football development close to the distance. Young players have accumulated valuable experience, and Ivankovic’s team is worth the trip.
In view of the strength shown by the national football team in the entire series, the report card of 3 wins and 7 losses in 10 games is undoubtedly objective and fair. The so-called “opportunity” missed against Saudi Arabia at home is more like a illusion. What is really unacceptable is that the former opponents of the same level, Uzbekistan, Jordan and other teams have now left us far away, and Chinese football has once again paid a heavy price to ignore objective laws.
“They came back from the European League and played the World Cup. We were all here after playing the Chinese Super League. We were all attaining the football. How could the gap be?” After losing to Japan, Saudi Arabia and Australia in succession in the cycle, a national player confided to reporters. Since the 2018 “Four-Nationals” defeat in Wales, the national football team has tried its best to avoid confronting world-class teams. The current FIFA ranking (94th place) is deceptive, and the team’s real strength may have fallen to the top 100 in the world.
In the last two World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese national football team won only 4 victories. Before Wang Yudong opened the national team’s goal account, the victory of the national football team all relied on the outstanding performance of overseas players. Wu Lei defeated Vietnam by relying on the “Harbour Connection”. Zhang Yuning can still teach the Dutch youngsters (Indian defenders) a lesson after leaving the Netherlands for many years. Nowadays, the prospects of naturalization projects are unpredictable, and overseas players are becoming increasingly important to the national football team. From shining U20 Asian Cup, to scoring 8 goals in the Chinese Super League, to becoming a lifesaver for the national team when it first started, and finally scoring the winning goal in the final game, Wang Yudong has become a popular player in the past few months and has become a flag-holder of the younger generation of the national football team. The topic of whether he chooses to study abroad is touching.
When Wang Yudong was interviewed recently, he seemed not enthusiastic about studying abroad.He told him to “kick the Chinese Super League and then go out.” The Shanghai two heroes and Shandong Taishan have poor performance in the AFC Champions League, and Serginho performed mediocrely on the World Cup stage. These all show that the Chinese Super League in the new era is very limited. It is not only difficult for talented young players to improve here, but also likely to be “assimilated”. Wang Yudong and others are in a critical stage of urgent needing to “game up”. Every delay in a season will become an irreparable loss. The future of the national football team needs the courage to move forward.