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China play Hong Kong in crucial World Cup qualifier
(China Daily)
Updated: 2004-11-16 10:08
Arie Haan, the Dutch coach of the Chinese national soccer team remains
confident that his team will advance to the finals of the 2006 World Cup Asian
Zone qualifying tournament.
"The Chinese are more powerful than the Hong Kong players. As long as we can
play our level, we will win the match," Haan said on Friday.
China play Hong Kong tomorrow night in Guangzhou in the deciding match. Only
a victory by a big margin would give the Chinese any chance of qualifying for
the final eight.
China must beat Hong Kong by at least two more goals than Kuwait, who lead
the group on goal difference and play Malaysia at the same time.
Reports say that Malaysian football officials had already decided to line up
a second-string team against the Kuwaitis.
Haan, whose team lost 0-1 to Kuwait on October 13, is upbeat about the coming
match.
"I am really satisfied with the pre-training," said Haan, the former
Stuttgart and FC Nuremberg coach.
"The purpose of the training is to give our players more confidence to attack
as only scoring goals can bring us happiness.
"We need to defeat our rivals psychologically at first, forcing them to make
mistakes on the pitch. It would be wonderful if we could score in the beginning
of the match.
"I will not take a three-forwards formation," said Haan, in response to
questions about the team's lacklustre forward line.
"We will focus on the middle field and try our best to pressure our rivals in
that area, providing our forwards a great space to attack."
China qualified for their first World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan in
2002 under Serbian Bora Milutinovic. They came down to earth in the group stage
losing all three matches without scoring any goal.
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