According to the established plan, China's men's national soccer team will end its "14+7" days of isolation on February 24th, and then be disbanded in Shanghai. However, after a short break of one week, most of the team members will assemble in Haikou on March 3 and plan to leave for the United Arab Emirates around the 10th to prepare for the last two rounds of the 12-team tournament (home game against Saudi Arabia and away game against Oman). Naturalized players such as Wu Lei and Li Lei, who play for European clubs, will have the opportunity to go directly to West Asia as long as their health and condition are up to standard. For the members of the national football team who are about to embark on the road to the West, the "seamless transition" between the new and old seasons means that the journey to 2022 will be full of challenges.
On February 22nd, the national football team will have the last outdoor training in Suzhou. According to the epidemic prevention regulations, the team will leave the hotel in Suzhou on the 23rd, and then be collectively transferred to the designated hotel in Shanghai in the form of a "bubble-type" closed-loop epidemic prevention. After passing the final nucleic acid test on the same day, the team members will be dismissed in Shanghai on the 24th.
In the seventh and eighth rounds of the 12-team tournament in late January and early February, the national soccer team suffered two consecutive defeats, and for the first time in its history, it was defeated by Vietnam on the road, and it did not qualify for the final stage of the Qatar World Cup two rounds ahead of schedule. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, all members of the national football team returned to the country on February 3, need to be in accordance with the provisions of the 14 + 7 days of isolation. In view of the seriousness of the domestic epidemic prevention and control situation, Suzhou also recently appeared epidemic, the whole team quarantine are in Suzhou "closed loop". Coaches, players and officials of the National Football Association were unable to reunite with their families during the Spring Festival, and their homesickness for their families was overflowing.
Nonetheless, there is a lot of anticipation within the national football team for the final two rounds of the upcoming Round of 12. Due to the epidemic, the 9th round home match against Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be held on March 24 in Sharjah, UAE. And the new Chinese Super League season will not start until late April at the earliest. Therefore, the coaching team, after communicating with the management of the team, determined that from March 3 to arrange for the national football team to conduct a new training session. From February 24th to March 3rd to lift the quarantine to re-grouping, leaving the rest time for the members of the national football team's western expedition is only a short week.
It is reported that after the end of this period of closed training in Suzhou, the coaching team and the list of players of the national football team will be adjusted. For example, one of the Chinese coaches, Changchun Yatai team manager Chen Yang will go to Hainan directly after the end of the isolation period, return to the team to prepare for the new season. Given that the Yatai team is facing the AFC Championship, league and cup matches, the team also urgently needs the head coach to return to the team as soon as possible. For some reason was not able to go with the team to Japan, Vietnam to participate in the 12th round of the tournament in the 7th and 8th round of the local coach Sun Jihai is expected to return to the coaching team and go with the team to the West.
During the January training in Shanghai, the Brazilian physical fitness coach Owen Wilk, who was seconded by Shanghai Shenhua FC, and the Spanish assistant coach Pep, who had traveled directly from Barcelona to Tokyo to meet with the national football team, will continue to stay in China after the end of the current training, and will start their respective work from the next training session.
