The draw for the round of 18 of the 2026 men's World Cup Asian qualifiers was officially released: the national football team, which was in pot 5, was finally placed in Group C.
Also in the group are Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Indonesia. A veritable group of death!
(To be honest: the AFC really "takes care" of the Chinese team, except for Bahrain, almost every strongest team is placed in Group C)
Before unsigning, it is necessary to understand the rules for qualifying:
The top two teams in these three groups qualified directly and got a total of 6 tickets to the World Cup. Then the 3rd and 4th places in the three groups, the six teams compete in the next stage. The six teams are divided into two groups for a single round-robin tournament, with the winners of the two groups getting two World Cup tickets.
Then the second place in the two groups will play a two-legged home and away match, and the final winner will get the chance to participate in the play-offs. The play-off opponents, Oceania and other state teams, compete for the final qualification spots.
Then let's take a look at Group C, where the national football team is located:
First of all, facing Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia, the national football team basically has no chance to struggle. The strength of these three strong teams is well known to everyone, and they are also frequent visitors to the World Cup.
Japan has reached the round of 16 of the World Cup four times in a row, this is hard power, otherwise the Japanese Football Association would not arrogantly say that it will leave Asia and enter Europe. In the last World Cup, Saudi Arabia won against Argentina; Australia, on the other hand, defeated European powerhouse Denmark and Tunisia, only to lose 1:2 to Argentina. However, it limited Messi to the extreme!
Therefore, in the face of these three teams, the national football team cannot say that it has given up resistance, but only has little chance of winning.
Secondly, then the national football team will have to compete with Bahrain and Indonesia for a fourth chance. The record of the national football team and Bahrain still has the upper hand on the whole, with 3 wins and 4 draws in 7 encounters, remaining undefeated! However, the concern is that the last 4 meetings have all been draws. Moreover, in recent years, the level of the national football team has declined sharply, so the two teams play again, and the situation is not optimistic.
Facing Indonesia, the national football team has played against it 13 times and achieved a record of 9 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss! 30 goals scored and 9 conceded. But now Indonesia is not what it used to be, they used a series of naturalized players to form the "Dutch second team", judging from the performance of the round of 36, it is not easy for the national football team to gain the upper hand again.
Therefore, on the whole, the national football team can only go all out to compete for a 4th position. That is, Bahrain and Indonesia, which are equal in strength, to grab the qualification for the next stage of the competition!
However, we have to look at the level of the national football team rationally, from being forced to draw by Singapore before, and being so embarrassed by the Thai team at home, so the strength of the national football team has no capital to compete with any team, and even in the process of competing for the fourth place with Indonesia and Bahrain, it will fall behind!
What to do? Lost a chance?
There must be, that is, the Football Association must speed up the process of naturalization! Like the Cangzhou Lions, Oscar already has the qualifications for naturalization, and as long as the procedures go smoothly, he will definitely be able to catch up with the first competition. In addition, Changchun Yatai's Serginho can also be considered.
Coupled with Allan, Fernando, and Wu Lei, the frontcourt combination of the national football team is theoretically strong enough. There is a clear cooperation, and there is also excellent personal ability, so if the Football Association wants to make the national football team gain something, then the pace of naturalization must be accelerated!
Of course, if the Football Association sees the grouping and thinks that the group is dead, there is no need to invest. Then you can drink Ivankovic to communicate in advance and give up the opportunity to impact the World Cup. Take advantage of this hard-won 10 tournaments to train more young players and completely complete the replacement of the old and the new.