According to the FIFA draw, China Team had been placed in the same group as the Netherlands, Cameroon, and Denmark for this World Cup. None of the three opponents was weak.
The Netherlands needed no introduction. According to the FIFA rankings, the Netherlands currently stood fourth, Cameroon nineteenth, Denmark thirty-sixth, and China Team fifty-sixth—the lowest-ranked of the four teams.
This was mainly related to their successive losses in recent friendlies and the East Asian Four Nations Tournament.
But no team dared underestimate China, because Yang Yang was part of the squad.
Yang Yang's strength was known not only to football fans familiar with the sport. Even in the United States, supposedly a football desert, he was a household name.
After helping Real Madrid win both La Liga and the Champions League, claiming the Double Crown, everyone began looking forward to this year's World Cup.
Many people believed that regardless of how China Team performed, unless Messi or Little Ronaldo could lead Argentina or Portugal to the title, it would be difficult to shake Yang Yang's lead in the two major awards at the end of the year.
With Yang Yang on the team, when the foreign media analyzed China's group, they generally believed that while the Netherlands had practically secured qualification, China Team, Denmark, and Cameroon all had a chance to advance. The outcome was impossible to predict.
This also made it clear just how much the world's media and fans respected and feared Yang Yang.
Against different opponents, China Team arranged different warm-up matches.
After Yang Yang rejoined the squad, the National Team made a brief adjustment in Beijing before heading directly to a training camp in Switzerland.
This was China Team's training location before the World Cup, and most of the overseas-based internationals would meet up with