Outside of the national football team, Asian teams are busy preparing for friendlies in September.

By: Han Bing On July 25, the Chinese Football Association announced the solicitation of cities interested in hosting the national team's invitation tournament during the international match days in October and November, while officially confirming that the national team will not have any friendly matches during the September international match days. In contrast, most of the other stronger national teams in Asia have already determined their opponents for the September international match days. Teams like Japan and South Korea have chosen to warm up against strong teams from Europe and America, while the six teams participating in the playoffs will also have friendly matches. The national team, without a new coach decided yet, is falling behind its Asian rivals in maintaining its current world ranking through September friendlies.

Japan announced back in May that it would travel to the United States for warm-up matches during the September international match days, preparing for next year's World Cup. The Japanese team has two matches scheduled: one against Mexico in Auckland on September 6, and another against the United States in Columbus on September 9. The Japan Football Association has even started looking for opponents for the international match days in October and November, with Paraguay confirmed as the opponent for the Kirin Cup on October 10 at the Suita Panasonic Stadium.

South Korea is following Japan's lead, also heading to the U.S. for warm-up matches in September, with the same opponents. They will face the United States in New Jersey on September 6 and Mexico in Nashville on September 9. During the October international match days, South Korea will also play against Paraguay, but the match is scheduled for October 14. It is likely that Japan and South Korea will face the same team in another match in October.

The Japanese and South Korean football associations have been sharing warm-up match opponents since 2022. In June of that year, Brazil visited both countries; in March 2023, the two teams faced Colombia and Uruguay at home, and in June and October, they played the same opponents, El Salvador and Tunisia.

Such "cooperation" allows visiting teams to earn more appearance fees and helps secure stronger opponents.

Australia has chosen to engage in traditional two-match series with New Zealand in September and will follow Japan and South Korea to North America for warm-up matches in October. They will face Canada in Montreal on October 10 and the United States in Colorado on October 14.

The two World Cup qualifying teams from Central Asia, Iran and Uzbekistan, will participate in the Central Asian Cup from August 29 to September 8. In addition to the six national teams from the Central Asian Football Confederation, Oman and Malaysia have also been invited to participate, although Malaysia announced its withdrawal on July 15. After withdrawing from the Central Asian Cup, Malaysia will have warm-up matches in Kuala Lumpur against Singapore on September 4 and Palestine on September 8, in preparation for the Asian Cup qualifiers in October.

Additionally, Iran will have a warm-up match against Russia on October 6. Initially, Russia was one of the potential warm-up opponents for the national team in September, and there were rumors about it, but unfortunately, it did not materialize.

The six teams participating in the playoff for the World Cup qualifiers have all scheduled warm-up matches in September. Among them, the host of Group A, Qatar, will play two warm-up matches against Egypt in Doha; the UAE will warm up against Syria, intending to play two matches, with one scheduled for September 5; the weakest team in Group A, Oman, has been invited to participate in the Central Asian Cup.

In Group B, the host country Saudi Arabia was invited to participate in the Gold Cup in June, where they faced Haiti, the United States, and Trinidad and Tobago in the group stage, and were eliminated by Mexico in the quarter-finals. On September 8, Saudi Arabia will be training in Europe and will have a warm-up match against the Czech Republic; Iraq will participate in the King’s Cup from September 1 to 9, starting with a match against Hong Kong and then facing Thailand or Fiji; Indonesia will have warm-up matches at home in Surabaya against imagined opponents Kuwait and Lebanon.

Among the teams that participated in the 18-team competition, besides the national team, only Jordan, Bahrain, and North Korea have not arranged any warm-up matches. Traditionally seen as a team that rarely participates in international matches, North Korea has already had three warm-up matches against Jordan since last year and even played against Kazakhstan in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this year.