China's Olympic boss Blazevic upbeat about team's future

SHANGHAI - Miroslav Blazevic might be the most optimistic person in Chinese soccer.

While insiders blame China's decline in the game on the country's limited soccer population, the 74-year-old Croatian believes China has enough talented players and coaches to play top-class soccer.

"Chinese players are more talented than people believe, and the Chinese coaches are not as impotent as people think," Blazevic said during a Feb 22-28 training session with the national squad. "In fact, there are many gifted youngsters in this Olympic team."