The emotions of Chinese football fans have been stirred to a rare high point, and it has been a long time since Chinese football saw such a united and long-awaited scene: around 200 fans went to the airport in the early hours of the morning to welcome the returning Chinese football players with flowers. According to ticketing data, about 40000 tickets were sold on the evening of November 21st, when they hosted the South Korean team at home in Shenzhen, After a 2-1 away victory against the Thai team on the evening of November 16th, it was sold out within a few hours. Fans who did not buy tickets early regretted it. The Shenzhen Longgang Universiade Center Stadium was the main venue for the 2011 Shenzhen World University Games, and hurdler Liu Xiang lit the main torch at the opening ceremony that year. Today, the Shenzhen Universiade Center, which is firmly bound to Chinese football, has once again become the focus of Chinese sports, I can't wait for the passionate release on the evening of the 21st.
The match between Shenzhen and South Korea at the Universiade Center Stadium on the evening of the 21st was the first home game of the Chinese national football team in the semi-finals of the 2026 US Canada Mexico World Cup Asian qualifiers. Unlike the first two home games used in this year's friendly and warm-up matches, Shenzhen's home stadium is a true home stadium for the World Cup qualifiers, The opponent is the top Asian team South Korea (the strength of several stars such as Sun Xingjin, Kim Woo zai, and Lee Gangren has also been widely recognized by Chinese fans), and the good news of the away comeback to Thailand in the first round makes the victory or defeat of the home game less important. The first goal of the Chinese football team is to advance to the round of 36 in the group stage and advance to the next stage of the round of 18. Winning Thailand away has already established an "absolute advantage", Such a coincidence made this game more like a pure "football battle".
To avoid interference, the South Korean team arrived in Shenzhen at noon on the 19th, leaving only one day of pre match training time for themselves. The victory over the Singapore team in the first round of the game has relatively relaxed the mentality of the South Korean team. Coach Klinsmann has repeatedly emphasized that the game with the Chinese team should be played normally.
The South Korean team, which has enough confidence and absolute certainty to advance to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time, least hopes for accidents such as player injuries or suspensions. Therefore, the South Korean players interviewed after arriving in Shenzhen also unanimously "calm down".
"We encountered some difficulties in our first game against Singapore, and we will adapt to the rest of the game," said Jin Wenzai, who played for Beijing Guoan for two seasons and now serves as the defensive defender for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. "The Chinese team has players who used to play with me, and I am very familiar with them."
In the 2017 Russia World Cup qualifying round of the Asian quarter finals, Lippi led the Chinese national team to a 1-0 victory over the suspended South Korean team at home in Changsha. Six years later, the two sides met again in the World Cup qualifying round. The primary issue for the Chinese national team was not to "defeat the South Korean team", but to "stabilize the environment".
For Chinese football, which has been hovering in a low valley for a long time, the common expectation of millions of fans is that "there must be a great rule after the chaos, and there must be a great prosperity after the great rule". The 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers starting from this month provide the best opportunity for the stable development of Chinese football in the next cycle.
