Reporter Chen Yong reported that on July 4, the Chinese Football Association finalized the first home of the top 18 of the national football team - Dalian Barracuda Bay Football Stadium; On July 23, the Chinese Football Association finalized the second home of the top 18 of the national football team - Qingdao Youth Football Stadium, and the first two home stadiums of the top 18 of the national football team chose professional football stadiums.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Asian Round of 18 are played on five FIFA match days, with two matches played on each FIFA match day, with the national football team playing away from home against Saudi Arabia on 10 September, Indonesia on 15 October, Japan on 19 November, Australia on 25 March 2025 and Bahrain on 10 June.
When finalizing the two home stadiums of Dalian and Qingdao, the Chinese Football Association announced the relevant reasons for the choice of home stadiums, in addition to the basic hardware conditions, three factors were mainly considered: first, the itinerary of the national football team, the national football team played away against Japan on September 5, and the city closer to Japan and direct flights has an advantage, Dalian has such conditions; Second, the climate, in September, the temperature in the south is higher, the humidity is higher and there are more thunderstorms, the northern cities naturally have advantages, the game in October, Qingdao and the national football team's previous away Adelaide climate is similar, there are certain advantages; Third, the seats meet the needs of fans to watch the game, can create a warm home atmosphere, Dalian Barracket Bay Professional Football Stadium and Qingdao Youth Football Stadium are large professional football stadiums, the former can accommodate 63,000 people, the latter has 50,000 seats.
At present, there are many professional football stadiums in China, and Xi'an, Beijing, Chengdu and other places have professional football stadiums. Xi'an, the first two home stadiums of the national football team, did not submit a bid, and the national football team had intended to play in Xi'an but did not make the trip, which once caused great losses to the national football team, so even if Xi'an bid, it was more difficult; Chengdu proposed to bid for the home game of the national football team in October, before the national football team had some problems when playing in Chengdu, it is necessary to summarize, if there is enough determination and sufficient security methods, the next home game is arranged in Chengdu, it is not impossible; Beijing has put forward a bid to host individual games, and the venues are the National Stadium and the Workers' Stadium, of which the Workers' Stadium, as a large-scale professional football stadium, is naturally a place that fans yearn for; Chongqing has also submitted a bid, but its large-scale professional football stadium has not yet undertaken large-scale football events; Xiamen's stadium is a track/soccer conversion pitch, and the main grandstand is relatively far away from a pure professional football field, which is similar to that of Shanghai Stadium.
As a professional football stadium, the viewing setting is more reasonable, and the field conditions also fully take into account the needs of football matches, theoretically the national football game will be arranged in a professional football stadium as much as possible, but non-professional football stadiums are not without advantages, the national football team may consider the home stadium of the top 36, such as Tianjin and Shenyang, because the home atmosphere formed is enough and the experience of the game has been tested.
From July 20th to 22nd, the 24th round of the Chinese Super League, which was originally scheduled to be played from August 24th to 25th, was held ahead of schedule, and the reason for the advance was to reserve more time for the preparation of the national football team. Initially, the national football team planned to start training on August 18 after the end of the 23rd round of the Chinese Super League, but with the "big international players" all advancing to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, the training time of the national football team was postponed and basically determined on August 23.
At present, Shandong Taishan, Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai Port, Beijing Guoan, Chengdu Rongcheng, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Henan have advanced to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, before the national football team of 29 people, from these 7 clubs of the international team has 25 people, even if the national football list in September has been adjusted, I am afraid that the international players of other clubs are only a few, so that the training camp will face an extreme shortage of personnel on August 18.
From August 20th to 22nd, the sixth round of the FA Cup will be played, and after the FA Cup match, the national football team will start training on August 23rd, and the preparation time is still very sufficient, with about two weeks of preparation time, which can fully recover and adjust and technical and tactical drills. Of course, in the long training process, how to maintain the morale of the players is the key, and the Ministry of State Management also has a corresponding plan for this.
National football coach Ivankovic has returned to China and has watched a number of Chinese Super League matches in the last two rounds, including the Beijing-Tianjin match, Cangzhou and Shenhua matches, as well as the Tianjin Tigers and West Coast matches. However, Ivankovic, who has fully inspected the league before, has called all the outstanding players in his mind into the team for training and games, and watching the Chinese Super League games at this stage is more just to check the state of the existing internationals, even if a few new players are selected, they are unlikely to get too many opportunities in the round of 18 immediately.
As for the rejuvenation of the national football team, this trend has been shown in the previous games, and the investigation of young players is the focus of Ivan's next work, but considering the lack of excellent young players, and the rejuvenation of the national football team also has a consideration of the adjustment range, the new young internationals in the list may increase, but the young internationals in the game lineup may not increase.
Some international players have played well in the league, such as Wu Lei's non-stop goals, Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Shenglong and other defensive players have become more and more stable, and Gao Zhunyi has also returned to the field, which is good news for Ivankovic. However, before the start of the national football training camp, the "big international players" have at least 5 games, and Shandong Taishan has to play 6 games.