According to a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, the National Football Team has determined five captain candidates for the Asian Cup. They are Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng, Wu Lei, Jiang Guangtai, and Yan Junling. Wu Xi is the captain for the first game.
On the morning of January 8, local time, the Chinese team went to Qatar University to participate in the second outdoor training after arriving there. One day later, the team will resume the high-intensity training of "two practices a day", and all training content will be fully centered around the technical and tactical arrangements for the Asian Cup group matches. It is understood that the Chinese team has currently identified 5 captain candidates. They are Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng, Wu Lei, Jiang Guangtai, and Yan Junling. Among them, Wu Xi is the captain of the team in the first game.
As the Chinese team arrived in Doha, Qatar, on the 7th local time, the team also officially entered the "Asia Cup time." It is understood that considering that the team had a hard time training and warming up in Abu Dhabi, the coaching staff did not arrange extensive training sessions immediately after the team arrived in Doha. According to the plan, the Chinese team mainly conducted adaptive training such as physical activation in the first training session in Doha on the evening of the 7th local time, and then conducted relatively simple ball training in the same venue on the morning of the 8th.
However, on the 9th, the entire team will resume "two practices a day." This is because that day was only 4 days away from the first game of the Asian Cup group stage against Tajikistan, which is actually roughly the same as the interval between the team's group stage games. Head coach Jankovic needs to arrange the team's training content according to the rhythm of the game starting from the 9th, so that the players can adjust their game status as soon as possible.
Before the Chinese team moves to Doha, it has confirmed its 26-man Asian Cup roster. In this national football team with an average age of 29, there are many veterans over 30 years old. They are the indispensable backbone of the team both technically and mentally. It is understood that the team's coach and management team have finalized five captain candidates based on the players' abilities, experience, cohesion and other factors. The first captain is still the nearly 35-year-old veteran Wu Xi. The remaining four captain candidates are Zhang Linpeng, Wu Lei, Jiang Guangtai, and Yan Junling.
Among the five players, except for the naturalized player Jiang Guangtai, the other four are all over 30 years old. Zhang Linpeng had played 100 official games for the national football team before this Asian Cup. Wu Lei played 89 times and led the team's scorer list with 32 goals. Yan Junling and Jiang Guangtai are also the absolute main players of the current national football team. Whether the Chinese team can perform well during this Asian Cup depends largely on the performance of the above-mentioned captains.
