The Chinese Soccer Federation canceled the November 19th friendly with Italy because they have to prepare for a World Cup qualifier with Hong Kong. Italy have to now find a new opponent. I say go with San Marino and then we can beat them 13-0 and look good.
This doesn't surprise me. It was actually originally scheduled for Nov 17, but I saw that China has a WCQ that same day. Then I saw it had been pushed back to Nov 19, but this still seemed like a difficult turn-around for China, who may have to be preparing for a play-off. Italy may not have much a choice of opponents.
Per Fifa.com (which is not always accurate), these European countries are NOT cuirrently scheduled to play on November 17: Finland Slovakia Albania Switzerland Faroe Islands Austria Northern Ireland Wales Azerbaijan Bulgaria Iceland Bosnia-Herzogovina As I said, I'm sure some/most of these really do have friendlies scheduled that just aren't listed at Fifa's site. But at least some of them seem like decent opponents. BTW, San Marino has a qualifier scheduled for that day, vs Lithuania.
I would like to see us play at home to Austria. Not the biggest test but also a decent opponent the same.
The article is misleading. China's qualifier w/Hong Kong is on Nov 17th. The problem is their recent shocking loss to Kuwait means that China and Kuwait are now tied at the top of their preliminary qualifying group, with one game to play and only one team advancing. There is some possibility of a play-off, should the two teams finish tied on goal difference and goals scored. I suspect the real problem is, if China fails to win their match by the required number of goals, there will be a huge national depression and nobody will feel much like playing a friendly two days later. As for the US, they also have a qualifier to play that day.
The Nordic countries always pose an interesting challenge. Should be a good game that will help both teams.