On the evening of November 21st at 8 o'clock, the Chinese national football team welcomed the first home game of the World Cup qualifying round of 36 at the Longgang Universiade Center Stadium in Shenzhen. This is also the first home game for the Chinese team to embark on the journey of the 2026 US Canada Mexico World Cup.

Focus Battle Landing in Shenzhen Pengcheng Becomes Preparation Base

A focal point battle between China and South Korea is about to kick off in Shenzhen. This competition is full of various elements of old and new confrontations: following China's 1-0 victory over South Korea in Changsha in March 2017, China will once again face its old rival South Korea. The duel between Wu Lei and Sun Xingqian, as well as the reunion of Zhang Yuning and Jin Wenzai, are all worth watching.

The Chinese men's football team has not come to Shenzhen many times to compete. In 2011, the Chinese national football team at Shenzhen Stadium faced Iran. At the end of the first half, Iraq's star player Younis scored a goal for the Chinese team, and China lost 1-0 to Iran; In the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in the Asian region in September 2015, the Chinese team still struggled to win at home and drew 0-0 against the Hong Kong team.

The list of national teams participating in this World Cup qualifier also includes a player from Shenzhen team, who is a young player born in 1995, Xu Haofeng.

"As a player of the Shenzhen team, I am more familiar with this place. Now that I am also a national team player, I need to be more strict with myself and live up to this national team jersey. I also hope that Shenzhen fans can support me more," said Xu Haofeng.

Xu Haofeng also revealed that head coach Alexander Yankovic is very disciplined and principled, and the most mentioned aspects in training are game intensity, rhythm, and confrontation. In preparation for the World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team is gradually transforming into an iron army under his leadership.

More than 3000 amateur teams in Shenzhen

It is understood that the Shenzhen Football Association was established in 1982, and on January 26, 1994, the Shenzhen Football Club was established, becoming the first professional football club with a membership system in the country.

The opponents of the Chinese men's football team in the top 36 Asian qualifiers of the 2026 World Cup are South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. Due to the only five-day interval between the first two rounds of matches, in order to avoid players having to work long distances, the Chinese Football Association has decided to use Shenzhen as its headquarters to carry out November training and prepare for the first two rounds of the round of 36 matches.

After the match against Thailand on November 16th, the team can return to Shenzhen and quickly prepare for the second round of the match against South Korea.

As a key city for national football development, Shenzhen has relatively mature football software and hardware conditions. Shenzhen has rich experience in organizing competitions, having hosted the men's and women's football competitions at the 26th Summer Universiade in 2011, and successfully hosted two international high-end events such as the Asian qualifiers of the Men's World Cup, the Four Country Women's Football Invitational, the International Champions Cup, and the French Super Cup.