In the early morning of September 3, Beijing time, the dust settled from the first round of the Group B matches of the 2022 World Qualifying Asian Zone 12 tournament. The Chinese men's soccer team went down 0-3 to Australia, while fellow team Japan was unexpectedly shut out by Oman, making the situation in Group B confusing from the first round.
National soccer team suffers embarrassment, bottom of group
Even though the Australian team has lost its main players such as Leckie and most of its players are playing in overseas leagues, which reduces the training time, as the "hosts" they arrive at the venue of the game in a shorter period of time than the visiting team. This gave the national soccer team a glimmer of hope for points before the match. However, Australia has been in the World Cup finals since the Asian qualifiers, and has a lot of experience in advancing to the finals. In contrast, the national football team has very little experience of winning in the Top 12. In the end, facing the powerful Australia, the national football team still lost. Although such a result was expected, but the 3 goals lost points at least let the team's defense confidence hit, the national football team is also temporarily at the bottom of the group.
Japan's accidental capsizing changed the situation abruptly
From the point of view of the FIFA ranking of 36 places between the national soccer team and Australia, the loss of the national soccer team is also "reasonable". However, Japan, which was considered the strongest team in Group B before the match, suffered an accident in the first round of the group stage. At the Osaka Municipal Fukuta Soccer Stadium, the match between Japan and Oman was shut out by the opponents in the 88th minute, and the team finally lost 0-1. It is worth mentioning that Oman's head coach Ivan Kovic was once the coach of Shandong Luneng. Japan's loss may have something to do with not knowing their opponents too well and being overconfident in the first round, but in fact Japan has traditionally not had an absolute overwhelming advantage against West Asian teams.
In the other match, Saudi Arabia beat Vietnam 3-1, but Vietnam led Saudi Arabia 1-0 at one point in the first half. Had they not suffered a penalty + red card penalty in the second half, Vietnam might have created another cold streak. Even so, Japan's unexpected loss has thrown Group B into disarray, with Saudi Arabia and Australia's chances of fighting for the top two spots in the group becoming even greater.
National soccer team faces Japan with a lot of difficulties
The result of the national football team's loss to Australia must have been in the coaching team's plan. After all, they will consider in advance to face a variety of complex situation response strategy. However, Japan's loss at home undoubtedly surprised the national soccer team, which makes the next round of matches between the national soccer team and Japan even more difficult. The first round of the loss of the Japanese team will certainly become vigilant, the next game to go all out, and may even appear to net 3 goals, never net 2 goals of the situation. Especially in the face of the group bottom of the national football team, the Japanese team will never be merciful.
For the national soccer team, the possibility of scoring in the next round of matches becomes smaller. But soccer matches are not always won by the superior team. Oman has proved that Japan is not invincible. If the national football team can do a good job of defense and wait for the opportunity to counterattack like Oman, there may also be unexpected gains.
