International Match: China National Football Team vs Uzbekistan! Is the notion that China is weak a misconception? Several reasons why they can earn points

Today, our first topic isthe international friendly: China National Football Team vs Uzbekistan!

Here we go again, another match for China.

This time, the opponent Uzbekistan is much stronger than Vietnam. Can China still show a bright performance?

Uzbekistan is indeed strong, very strong.

How strong exactly?

For example, in August this year, the Chinese Super League leader Shanghai Port was eliminated by Buriram United in the AFC Champions League.

The player who scored a hat-trick, Sergeyev, is only a substitute in the national team and recently wasn’t even selected.

Regarding the Uzbekistan team, not only do they have many talents,but their tactics and techniques are also very modern.

Look at their recent match against Vietnam, their high pressing was excellent, and once the intensity was set, they could almost always win the ball.

Their youth team is even stronger; a few days ago they drew with Spain, showing fashionable tactics and solid execution. In ten years, they could be formidable.

So objectively, it’s reasonable that Uzbekistan’s world ranking is higher than ours.

However,note: today’s match is just a friendly.

It’s quite odd that Uzbekistan, such a strong team, comes to China for a friendly.

Their strength has been increasing over the years,and they rarely schedule friendlies with Asian teams— mostly with European and American teams. In September, they even managed a draw against Mexico.

So their coming to China for a friendly seems to have little significance.

Firstly, it doesn’t help much in team development.

Secondly, it doesn’t serve as good preparation.

We arranged matches against Vietnam to prepare for Thailand, and Vietnam vs Uzbekistan was for Korea; everyone knows this.

But Uzbekistan will play Iran and Turkmenistan in November, whose playing styles are very different from China and Vietnam, so it’s not good preparation.

Thirdly, they don’t earn FIFA points.

For instance, the recent match they played against Vietnamwas not classified as an official international A match— according to official classification, it was a “training match,” with no points awarded regardless of the result.

So what exactly are they here for? It’s not very clear.

Anyway, at the pre-match press conference, their coach Catanec saidthe result is not important; the most crucial thing is that players stay injury-free.

He also mentioned trying out many players, possibly rotating heavily during the game to evaluate them, and so on.

I believe this because he has repeatedly criticized the pitch conditions these days, saying it’s very dangerous for players.

Since the match has little significance, health naturally comes first.

Therefore, Uzbekistan is not fielding their strongest lineup.

Including their national star Shomurodov (from Serie A), they have five key players absent.

Although their squad is still very strong,with a total value more than twice ours.

But their fighting spirit is questionable; perhaps as Catanec said, it’s mainly about player evaluation.

On the other hand, our national team’s fighting spirit is more reliable.

In September, although results were poor, they played hard, never backing down from tough challenges; Li Shuai even got injured.

Maybe because of this fighting spirit, our overall performance in friendlies this year has been quite decent.

Football is like this: sometimes the soft fear the hard, the hard fear the reckless, and the reckless fear the fearless. Although Uzbekistan is very strong, with their coach prioritizing “no injuries,” they might not show much combativeness.

Can our national team satisfy fans again? What do you think? I hope they at least avoid defeat!

Alright, for today’s other matches, I will still send you text analysis this evening. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. “Watch football with understanding,” see you then!

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