The Chinese Football Asian Games team fired their first shot and approached the Hangzhou Asian Games: China and India welcomed the football event "Earth Derby"

Editor's note: The Hangzhou Asian Games will open on September 23rd and close on October 8th. The Chinese sports delegation recently announced its overall goal for participating in the Hangzhou Asian Games - to achieve both sports results and spiritual civilization.

Jiefang Daily's Shangguan News City Affairs Channel and the School of Journalism and Communication at Shanghai Sport University jointly launched a column titled "Approaching the Hangzhou Asian Games" to experience the five major characteristics of the Hangzhou Asian Games: "Green, Intelligent, Humanistic, Simplicity, and Benefiting the People", witness the charm of Asian sports athletes, and experience the "high school entrance examination rhythm" of Chinese sports soldiers simulating their preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Hangzhou Asian Games will open on September 23rd, with some events taking the lead before the opening ceremony. September 19th is the first competition day of the Hangzhou Asian Games, where four events will be held, including cricket and beach volleyball, which will simultaneously hit the first shot of the Hangzhou Asian Games. However, the most anticipated match was between the Chinese men's football team and the Indian team at 19:30. This is also the first match of the three major goals of the Chinese delegation in the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The Chinese men's football team at the Asian Games must first strive to advance from the group stage.

As the host team of the Chinese men's football Asian Games, they have the advantages of timing, location, talent, and resources. Can Serbian coach Djorgevic lead the team to surprise Chinese fans and even surpass the historical best record of the runner up at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games?

De Tianshi: Historical confrontation with clear advantages

With the withdrawal of the Afghan team, 22 teams participated in the men's football competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games, divided into 6 groups. The top two teams in the group and the third place team from the two best performing teams will advance to the round of 16. In the group stage, the Chinese men's football Asian Games team will face the teams of India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh in Group A.

China and India are both populous countries, and the confrontation between the two teams is also referred to as the "Earth Derby" by some self media.

From a historical and current perspective, the overall strength of the Chinese men's football team at the Asian Games is significantly stronger than its three opponents in the group stage. Since 1956, the Chinese men's football team has played against India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh a total of 28 times, with 22 wins and 4 draws. The two lost games were both 1-2 in a friendly match against the Myanmar team.

According to the records of previous Asian Games matches, the Chinese men's football Asian Games team and the Indian team met three times in the group stage, achieving a record of 2 wins and 1 draw. The Chinese team and Bangladesh team only met once at the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games, and ultimately won 1-0. The Chinese team has never played against the Myanmar team at the Asian Games. In the international friendly match in June this year, the Chinese men's football team defeated the Myanmar team 4-0, which reflects the difference in strength between the two.

The Chinese team has the advantage of playing at home, but in terms of absolute strength, they do not have a significant advantage. In contrast, the South Korean team is the favorite to win the championship.

According to FIFA rankings, China is much higher than India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. However, if the Chinese men's football team wants to go further, a good start is important.

The Indian team has participated in the Asian Games football competition again after many years, and there are six key players in the Indian national team. Among the three overage players, there is 39 year old legendary veteran Sunil Chetri, who has scored 92 goals for the national team, holding the record for the most appearances and goals for the Indian team. One of the best defenders of the Indian team, Sandesh Sigan, was crowned AIFF Footballer of the Year in 2021.

In the Asian Games test match, Chinese and South Korean teams have played warm-up matches.

If the Chinese team successfully advances to the top of the group, they will face the third place team in Group B/C/D in the round of 16, and the probability of advancing to the quarter finals will greatly increase. There is a high possibility of encountering the South Korean team in the quarter finals. In June of this year, the Chinese men's football Asian Games team achieved a record of 1 win and 1 loss in two friendly matches against the South Korean U24 team. In addition to the previous champions, Asian strong teams such as Japan, Qatar, and Iran should not be underestimated.

Land occupation advantage: sitting at home, waiting for work with ease

The football competition venues of the Hangzhou Asian Games are distributed in three cities: Hangzhou, Jinhua, and Wenzhou, with a total of 8 competition venues. The three group stage matches of the Chinese men's football Asian Games were held at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, which is also the venue for the football final of the Asian Games.

The Chinese Football Asian Games team has entered the campus to promote football.

The three teams from India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh need to switch back and forth between Xiaoshan Sports Center and Huanglong Sports Center, with a distance of about 26 kilometers between the two places. The Chinese men's football Asian Games team arrived in Hangzhou in early September to begin their final training and familiarize themselves with the environment, which will help adjust the players' pre match form.

The three group stage matches of the Chinese men's football Asian Games are all scheduled to kick off at 7:30 pm. From the perspective of the team, compared to the game that starts at 4 pm in the afternoon, the cool playing weather at night is more conducive to athletes playing to their normal level; From the perspective of fans, after 7:30 pm, fans have the opportunity to go to the venue after work to cheer for the Chinese men's football Asian Games team. With the advantages of fans, venue, and other home games, the Chinese men's football Asian Games team can "sit idly by" during the group stage.

Zhan Renhe: Old and New, Striving for Victory in Stability

Zhan Renhe: Old and New, Striving for Victory in Stability

From the observation of the age structure of participating players, the Chinese men's football Asian Games team adopts a team formation model of veterans leading newcomers. Due to the one-year postponement of the Hangzhou Asian Games, many member associations under the Asian Football Confederation have focused their work on the men's football qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 6th U23 Asian Cup. Most teams will participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games as U22 teams, and some teams even appoint U20 national youth teams to participate. As previously announced by the Japanese Football Association, there were 11 players from university teams in the U22 national team squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games, while the rest were mostly substitute or peripheral players from various professional clubs in Japan, lacking experience with national brands.

The core players of the Chinese men's football Asian Games team mostly play key roles or rotate as main players in the Chinese Super League. Among them, up to 7 players from Shanghai Shenhua were selected, and young players such as Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun all had experience in participating in the Asian quarter finals of the preliminaries after passing away.

The three overage players are Liu Yang, Tan Long, and Gao Tianyi. 35 year old Tan Long has been in good form this season, representing Changchun Yatai in 24 appearances, scoring 9 goals and providing 3 assists. He scored a crucial goal in the 2022 East Asian Cup match against Hong Kong, China.

Dai Weijun is also an eligible player for the Chinese Football Association Asian Games.