Sports News: National Football Team to Fly Commercial to Australia on the 5th, Possible Chartered Flight Back to Qingdao Post Match

According to reporter Ma Dekang from Titan Sports Daily, the Chinese men’s national football team will assemble in Shanghai after the conclusion of this round of the AFC Champions League Elite Games on October 3rd. They will then fly to Australia on October 5th to prepare for their away match against Australia in the 18-strong tournament on October 10th.

Compared to the 12-day training camp before the two World Cup qualifiers in September, this time the preparation period for these two matches is noticeably shorter. Given that this round of the AFC Champions League Elite Games will be held from October 1st to 3rd, and both Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan have away matches, the national team can only reconvene on October 3rd, the day after their games, leaving less than a week until the match against Australia.

Under normal circumstances, the national team should first gather in Qingdao, the venue for this home game. However, due to the limited number of flights from Qingdao to Australia and the considerable amount of equipment the team needs to bring (which usually incurs significant overweight fees with commercial airlines), the national team has opted to assemble in Shanghai instead, given its longstanding partnership with China Eastern Airlines and the frequent flights they operate between Shanghai and Australia.

Currently, it seems almost certain that the national team will travel to Australia on a commercial flight. After the match against Australia, considering factors such as the gap between matches and players’ physical recovery, there is a possibility that they may return to Qingdao via a chartered flight.

On the other hand, Indonesia, China’s opponent on October 15th, is expected to travel by chartered flight from their away match in Bahrain to Qingdao, arriving in the evening of October 11th, and commence recovery training.