China makes a lot of sense.
Good team relative to us, but also one that could/should be winnable. Their record in AFC qualifying wasn't great, but they also didn't get to play any of their matches at home, instead playing them in the UAE, which also makes the nominal 'home' draw against Saudi more impressive. They'll also want to play us as much as we want to play them, which hasn't always been the case with some of the one-sided friendlies New Zealand plays, across both the AWs and FFs.
The Chinese Super League has taken a few stumbles recently with the financials, and barely crawled to its finish last month with forfeited results, but it's still a decent league in AFC terms and their players will be reasonable tests. Ignore their clubs' recent AFC CL results as they were played using youth players due to China's lockdowns/quarantine requirements. However, in 2019 they managed to have three out of four teams get out of the group stage - for reference both A League teams finished dead last in their groups with no wins between them from 12 games.
Their players probably won't be household names here, but they do have their own Chris Wood in Wu Lei. He just rejoined the CSL last year, bagging 11 goals in 12 games to take him to 113 all-time CSL goals to close the gap to 10 off the all-time record. More significantly, he spent the previous three years at Espanyol in La Liga, making 126 appearances and scored 16 goals.
They might have Elkeson - now Ai Kesen - the naturalised and capped Brazilian who holds the CSL scoring record, who despite returning to Gremio kept his Chinese passport and thus his eligibility. Aloisio - Luo Guofo since gaining citizenship - is another naturalised Brazilian in the Brazilian Serie A who could play, debuting in 2021.
Former Everton, Sunderland and England U21 international Tyias Browning - Jiang Guangtai - and former Arsenal, Brentford and England U19 international Nicholas Yennaris - Li Kie - are two other recently capped dual nationals that have played beyond the CSL.
Adding on to the mention in the article that there would be a decent ex-pat community to get away support from, playing China is also logistically smart. One of the issues with getting 'top' opposition to play in New Zealand is that their players will invariably be European-based. Japan is just as far away as China, but if their squad are all European-based, then they might as well be bordering Germany in terms of costs and time to get them to New Zealand. If the squad is solely in the CSL, then that will makes things easier for NZF, as Auckland takes direct flights from several Chinese cities, so they can be one and done, as opposed to flying two squads back from Europe.
Good team relative to us, but also one that could/should be winnable. Their record in AFC qualifying wasn't great, but they also didn't get to play any of their matches at home, instead playing them in the UAE, which also makes the nominal 'home' draw against Saudi more impressive. They'll also want to play us as much as we want to play them, which hasn't always been the case with some of the one-sided friendlies New Zealand plays, across both the AWs and FFs.
The Chinese Super League has taken a few stumbles recently with the financials, and barely crawled to its finish last month with forfeited results, but it's still a decent league in AFC terms and their players will be reasonable tests. Ignore their clubs' recent AFC CL results as they were played using youth players due to China's lockdowns/quarantine requirements. However, in 2019 they managed to have three out of four teams get out of the group stage - for reference both A League teams finished dead last in their groups with no wins between them from 12 games.
Their players probably won't be household names here, but they do have their own Chris Wood in Wu Lei. He just rejoined the CSL last year, bagging 11 goals in 12 games to take him to 113 all-time CSL goals to close the gap to 10 off the all-time record. More significantly, he spent the previous three years at Espanyol in La Liga, making 126 appearances and scored 16 goals.
They might have Elkeson - now Ai Kesen - the naturalised and capped Brazilian who holds the CSL scoring record, who despite returning to Gremio kept his Chinese passport and thus his eligibility. Aloisio - Luo Guofo since gaining citizenship - is another naturalised Brazilian in the Brazilian Serie A who could play, debuting in 2021.
Former Everton, Sunderland and England U21 international Tyias Browning - Jiang Guangtai - and former Arsenal, Brentford and England U19 international Nicholas Yennaris - Li Kie - are two other recently capped dual nationals that have played beyond the CSL.
Adding on to the mention in the article that there would be a decent ex-pat community to get away support from, playing China is also logistically smart. One of the issues with getting 'top' opposition to play in New Zealand is that their players will invariably be European-based. Japan is just as far away as China, but if their squad are all European-based, then they might as well be bordering Germany in terms of costs and time to get them to New Zealand. If the squad is solely in the CSL, then that will makes things easier for NZF, as Auckland takes direct flights from several Chinese cities, so they can be one and done, as opposed to flying two squads back from Europe.
BJ Guoan striker Yuning Zhang is another name. He wasn't involved in China's last three games against SK, Japan, and HK due to injury, but he finished 3rd top goal scorer in the CSL this season with 19 goals in only 30 games so it's highly likely he will be returning.
He's 26 and played for Vitesse's U19 team before going on to make appearances in the Eredivisie for their 1st team and before they were relegated, ADO Den Haag. He thwith Wynton's Werder Bremen but he had quite a bit of injury problems and never actually made an appearance, on the bench for 2 games in the Bundesliga.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure him and Wu Lei are the most recent players in the current China squad to play in Europe.
Edit: Oh wait never mind, there's Shaocong Wu, a young centre back currently with Istanbul Basakeshir in the Super Lig, though he only just joined. Lei only left Espanyol at the end of last season while Zhang left ADH around the latter stages of 2018/19.