Chinese soccer executive coach Hao Wei confident of Olympic qualifiers

XIANGHE, China - Newly-appointed Chinese men's football team executive coach Hao Wei said here on Tuesday that he is confident of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

"I have the confidence that we can qualify for the Olympics, and I hope my players feel the same way," said Hao, who was appointed as the executive coach last Thursday to take full charge of the team's training and Olympic qualifiers.

The 43-year-old Hao conducted his first training session at Xianghe national football training center on Tuesday, with the absence of the current head coach Dutchman Guus Hiddink, who only won four of the 12 offical games with the squad including a recent 2-0 loss to Vietnam.

"We have many problems needed to be resolved," noted Hao, whose first task will be the Chongqing international football tournament 2019 to kick off on October 9, which features Olympic teams of Jordan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

"I hope we can figure out a good plan after the tournament so that we can fix the problems and improve the skill of our players," he added.

Hao who led China women's football team to World Cup quarterfinals in 2015, believes he has the experiences to coach the Chinese men's Olympic team.

"Coaching men's team is different from coaching women's team. Yet my team and I are more mature than four years ago, and I hope we will have a positive result in the end," Hao said.

The qualifiers for 2020 Tokyo Olympics start in four months in Thailand, offering three Olympic tickets for Asia.

"I don't have too much time to prepare," Hao said. "As a coach, however, I always want to win all the matches."