Ivan is out of class, and the national football team is about to be rebuilt

Reporter Chen Yong reports After defeating Bahrain at home in the final match of the round of 18, Ivan's words at the press conference once sparked heated discussions and speculation from the outside world: Does the Football Association really plan to let him lead the team to the East Asian Cup or even continue to stay? But in fact, as this newspaper reported after the defeat of the national football team in Jakarta, Ivan's dismissal was inevitable, and the difference was only when the decision was announced. At present, this boot has landed, and the national football team is about to enter the reconstruction stage.

Previously, in Chongqing, at the press conference before and after the national football team against Bahrain, Ivan always avoided the topic of whether this was his last game in charge of the national football team. Especially after the game, when asked about the team's and personal prospects, he even made an outlook on the future plan of the national team, saying that he would "arrange some international friendly matches" during the international break, and at the same time would give young players more opportunities to practice through the East Asian Cup - the old coach's remarks instantly sparked heated discussions.

But in fact, after missing the play-offs, Ivan cannot continue to stay in the position of national football coach, and a change of coach is inevitable. After the loss to Indonesia, this newspaper published a special feature on the change of coach. At that time, the only question was whether the national football team would choose a new coach with only one month left until the beginning of July, or let Ivan lead the team to complete the last journey. It must be pointed out that at that time, the Football Association had multiple sets of plans, including letting Ivan continue to lead the team.

Judging from the actual situation, this plan is obviously not a suitable choice, and the key point is that the current domestic public opinion has almost "zero tolerance" for Ivan. If he continues to lead the team, it will inevitably cause more intense dissatisfaction and doubts, and these voices are obviously difficult for the Football Association to endure and cannot ignore. At the same time, with the countdown to the end of class already triggered, it is difficult to predict what kind of attitude Ivan can show to lead the team to the East Asian Cup, and even whether he himself has enough willingness to persevere, including what kind of result this "will" can achieve in the end.

Now the Football Association has finally made up its mind to let Ivan go to class, and it has completely ended the discussion of whether it was the right choice for him to lead the team to the East Asian Cup. Of course, Ivan's final departure still needs to be officially announced by the Football Association.

After that, an important task of the Football Association is to select a coach - this is a systematic project, from the direction, goals, procedures and other aspects of the problem, must be considered, it is precisely because of the complexity of this work, the possibility of determining a new coach before the East Asian Cup is very small.

Ivan's dismissal is undoubtedly a relief for the vast majority of national football fans.

In the round of 36 and round of 18 of the 2024-2025 World Preliminaries, in addition to making a certain contribution to the training (or promotion) of young players, Ivan has almost no other commendable features, but the obvious lack of technical and tactical requirements and formation arrangements has triggered criticism from the outside world.

The selection of a coach is crucial, but for the Football Association, the most urgent task in the recent national team work is to determine the acting coach of the East Asian Cup, and what kind of competition strategy to put at the top of the personnel level. In the history of the national football team, Yin Tiesheng and Fu Bo have both acted as coaches, of which Yin Tiesheng was in 2008 and Fu Bo was in 2013, when he led the team to participate in the East Asian Cup, drawing 3-3 with Japan, drawing 0-0 with South Korea, and defeating Australia 4-3.

Of course, the national football team also has an option, that is, Antonio makes a cameo appearance as the coach of the national football team to lead the team to participate in the East Asian Cup. This option is based on several considerations: the East Asian Cup lineup is likely to be mostly young people, basically from two groups: first, 99/00, 01/02 age group players, the current national football team has recruited 9 players in this age group, namely Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Shenglong, Xu Haoyang, Xie Wenneng and other national football main or rotation players, as well as Wang Haijian, Wang Zhenao, Tao Qianglong, Wu Shaocong and Liu Zhurun and other players who have played less or have not played; Second, the outstanding players in the 03/04 and 05/06 age groups, in addition to the original internationals, may select more newcomers for further investigation. As for the veteran players, in addition to considering the position, ability, and squad needs, a very important point is the desire to play for the country.

However, we need to point out that Antonio's main task is to lead the Under-23 national team to the Under-23 Asian Cup qualifiers in September, and if he does not perform well during the East Asian Cup, it may affect his subsequent coaching, and from a normal point of view, there is no need to put him in two roles - in fact, there have been double-heads-up examples in the history of Chinese football, but none of them succeeded.

The East Asian Cup is really just a transitional period for the national football team, and the real reconstruction must be after the new coach is in place.