Ivan: Being able to play in the round of 18 shows that the national football team is competitive and will seriously consider the issue of naturalization

Understand the Emperor of the Ball

2024-06-28 10:38Understand the official account of Emperor Qiu

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01 National football coach Ivankovic said that the national football team faces strong teams in the round of 18, but it is full of confidence in every game.

02 Ivan believes that the Chinese team needs to be fully prepared and targeted strategies when facing strong teams such as Japan, Australia, and Saudi Arabia.

03 He said that the Chinese team has been talking about the aging problem for fans in the past few years, and will try to bring in some other new players to bring unprecedented vitality.

04 In addition, Ivan will continue to use new players, and will also try to bring in some other new players to help the Chinese team achieve better results in the round of 18.

05 Finally, Ivan said that he hopes the Chinese team will show enough confidence in the round of 18 to prove that they are not so easy to beat.

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After completing the draw for the round of 18, the coach of the national football team, Ivankovic, was interviewed by Ma Dexing, a reporter from Sports Weekly.

How would you rate this (draw) result?

Ivan (laughs): Actually, do I need to say more about this? Our Chinese team is in the fifth bracket, and before the draw, we already knew that we would meet strong teams. And now that the results are in, I can say that our group is the strongest of the three groups because we have three teams in this group that played in the last World Cup and have earned honours for Asian football. Australia and Japan both made it to the knockout stages, with Saudi Arabia beating champions Argentina. We all know their strength. I've been working in Asian football for over 20 years and it's progressing so fast that no team is a victim. Even the previous Thailand team, or the Indonesian team, which is participating in the third stage of the competition for the first time, is not here to play such a role.

So, the first thing we need to do is be ready to play against any strong team. But we have to prepare with a surprise mentality because we're not just here to play in the round of 18, we need to be in the competition and we want to do something. Then, we go into each game with confidence, regardless of the result, whether it's against Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Indonesia.

In the face of such a result, what do you think the Chinese team should do? Or rather, how will you respond?

Ivan: The most important thing for us is to be well prepared. From now on, the important job is to start training, with passion, but also full of fighting spirit and motivation to fight for China, for the happiness of Chinese fans, and for everyone's family. I am sure that my team members will definitely do everything they can to fight for the country, for the people, for the family, and to be an important member of the arena like the other participating teams, not just going through the motions. I know it's not easy to do that, but I'm here to let the players know that the opponents and the games we're playing are difficult, but we still want to do something. And I'm sure that if we are in the round of 18, it shows that we are still a bit competitive and we need to show that.

Perhaps, now many people are concerned about whether the Chinese team will have more new faces in terms of personnel in the future.

Ivan: When I first came to China to take over the coaching whip of the Chinese team, we had already made short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. From now on, we will move into the medium-term planning. Actually, we've changed a lot in terms of personnel in the last three months, and you know, when I arrived in China, I only had 10 days to prepare for the game against Singapore, and I couldn't have done anything special during that time. But three months later, especially in the last two games, we have 12 new players compared to the previous game against South Korea. And we're going through a very difficult time during this period. We've had some important players injured, some important players have been suspended. However, against South Korea, we played quite well. We have five new players who are making their national team appearances for the first time, which is actually very positive for me and makes me optimistic about the next steps.

The next thing we have to do is find the best, the most suitable 23 players, the 23 who fit our ideas and are willing to fight for our country. At the same time, we will try to make the Chinese team a team that can play in a modern style, and a team that is always full of optimism, a team with a lot of confidence, because for the Chinese team, we really have nothing to lose. Also, we can tell from the training whether the players are full of confidence and whether they want to do something. I'm still confident that I'll do this job well.

One of the topics that has been talked about by fans for the past few years is that the players are constantly aging and there is a lack of young players. I also know that you are trying to change that. But how do you assess the young players who will be selected for the next step?

Ivan: All I can say is that I've changed some players for a variety of reasons. And, at least so far, I'm happy with the performance of these new players. And, in the last few games, we've shown a good thing about the new players who come into the team with passion and fighting spirit and they are willing to do something for the national team, for the country. So, in the future, on the one hand, I will continue to use these new players, and on the other hand, I will also try to bring in some other new players, and these new players will bring unprecedented vitality to the Chinese team, which is very important. And those old players, who don't use them for their own reasons, or for other reasons, but these don't matter anymore. Of course, some of them have left temporarily due to injury, and we will continue to use them after they have recovered from their injuries. More importantly, we are going to create a new era with a new generation of players, and I am sure that these new generations of players deserve to be at a higher level, especially at the highest level in Asia. So, let's be patient and see what exactly happens next.

Will you continue to look for naturalized players?

Ivan: I know a lot of people are talking about it, but we can only see if there is such a possibility. We have a few naturalized players in our Chinese team now, but some of them are obviously older, like Exxon. Of course, we have two or three other naturalized players. We'll also be seriously considering if there are other players who can join us and help our team.

After the group draw came out, did you think about the goal?

Ivan (laughs): Just now, a reporter from CCTV asked a similar question, and I said 30 points, of course, it was just a joke. Realistically, I didn't think about how many points I scored, but I never thought about "surrendering" the gun when I went out of the game. In the face of such a draw, the first thing is to throw yourself into it with a fighting attitude from the first minute to the 90th minute of each match. Also, we want to create some "surprises". What I can say now is that when we go into the race, we will be a team, a team capable of doing something. That's the most important thing for the players. After the last stage of the competition, we have come to this stage of the competition and we are very happy for all of us, and hopefully our players can first be more confident and then bring our ideas and strategies into the game.

Do you think that the Chinese team's participation in the top 18 at this stage is more meaningful to the Chinese team, or is it more meaningful to Chinese football?

Ivan: I know what you're referring to. However, you know that the atmosphere of Chinese football is actually changing little by little. For example, the atmosphere of the league has 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 fans in many games. There are more fans when the national team is playing. In fact, many things still take time, and in this process, it is important that the atmosphere can be improved and enhanced. For the national team, it does take some results. But recently, the addition of some young players has given us a glimpse of the energy that these young players bring. In the past, I felt that the Chinese team was too respectful of their opponents, and we should respect our opponents, but it does not mean that we should be afraid of our opponents. We should fight with each and every one of them with respect for each one, as we did against South Korea. In that game, every player on the field was fighting, and it didn't make it easy for the South Korean team to take the Chinese team! This is very important to me and a model for me! In fact, every next game of the Chinese team should be like this, we will try to form such a style, such a personality and characteristics in the Chinese team, and at the same time, we will also build the belief and consciousness of winning in the team. I know it's probably the hardest thing to do, but we're going to do it as much as we can. Then, by developing our own style of play, the Chinese team can slowly change and make all opponents realize that it is not so easy to beat the Chinese team.

Back to the draw itself. Of the five opponents in the Chinese team, which one do you find most exciting?

Ivan: I think it's going to be Japan. I am still familiar with the Japanese team, not only because I led the team to defeat the Japanese team in the last World Preliminary Tournament, but more importantly, the Japanese team is currently recognized as the best team in Asia. In the last qualifier, no one thought that I would lead Oman to a victory over Japan because they have more than 20 players playing in Europe, and in Europe's top five leagues. And, at the World Cup in Qatar, I also watched them play against my home country (Croatia) team, who only lost to Croatia in a penalty kick. Therefore, when we talk about Japanese football, we always do so with respect and admiration. However, football is football after all, and you never know what will happen on the football field, just like no one knows what will happen when the Chinese team plays Japan in the first game in the future.

In the last qualifier, you led Oman to 14 points and finished fourth. Have you ever thought about leading the Chinese team to get the same number of points this time?

Ivan: Of course I hope, as I said before, that the Chinese team has to become good at fighting and try everything possible. In fact, you should also know that in the last qualifiers against Japan, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team actually performed quite well, and also got points from the Australian team and the Saudi team. Of course, I didn't win against the Oman team I was leading at the time (laughs). In order to do this, or as I said earlier, the Chinese team must be composed of players who have a fighting spirit, are willing to pay for the national team and the country, and can show enough self-confidence on the field, the kind of self-confidence that can match a big country like China.

Based on the results of this draw, what specific strategies or scenarios will you have? Especially for the three strongest opponents in the same group, such as Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Ivan: That's for sure. I would say that this is football, and before every game, we will definitely make targeted deployments and strategies according to the situation of the opponent, whether it is Japan, Australia or Saudi Arabia, but also against Indonesia and Bahrain. For example, we have seen the performance of the Indonesian team at this year's Asian Cup, and they have improved faster than anyone could have imagined. So, I won't let alone Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Of course, we will definitely have a more detailed discussion about the details of the preparation after the group draw, and I think everyone will know when the time comes.

In the last round of 12, you led Oman to beat Japan away in the first game, what is the reason and mystery of this?

Ivan: I had a lot of time to prepare, because before we played the Japanese team, we had more than a month of training together, grinding in, preparing from all the details, and studying the situation of the Japanese team very thoroughly. This time, China's first game is away to Japan, so I hope we can have enough time to prepare and be able to play a good game against Japan. In this regard, I have made it clear whether our league schedule can be fine-tuned so that the national team can have more time to play. I know that Japan are a better team than China, but I hope to be able to show on the pitch that they are not so easy to beat us.

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