China’s new coach Zhuan Xiadong says he will learn from India in the match tomorrow rather than just focussing on winning or losing.
India and China open their Sultan Azlan Shah Cup campaign tomorrow at the Sultan Azlan Shas stadium here in Ioph, Malaysia.
“My team is very young, We lost badly to India at the Champions Challenge Cup. Then we watched their matches in the recent World Cup. Their’s is a better side, therefore we will try to learn as much as possible in our game against them tomorrow”, said Zhuang who is coaching the Men’s team of China for the last one year, after Kim Sam Rhyl switched to women’s side.
India defeated China 4-1 at Santigao Champions Challenge CUp in the leag phase, which is last time both teams met in an international arena.
“That was a one-sided match, we were then focussing on World Cup Qualifier, and the result was bad for us”, conceded the new Chinese coach, who represented his national team for nearly a decade, in which spell he figured in two Asian Games (1994 & 1998) as well. As a forward, he also netted 27 goals for China.
“I also learnt personaly much in the home Olympics, being one of the deputy coaches and it is time for our young team to play in tough matches and learn as much as possible before the Asian Games, because we have to have a reasonable build up, and that is what we we look for right now in the tournament”, the coach put the team’ needs in persepctive.
There six players in the Chinese team whose individual caps is below 20 matches, while seven players have played more than 100 matches each. The side is denifitely not as young as the coach would like us to belive.
Because, India also plays equally an young team here, with the same number of players as that of China having less than 20 caps. Further, India has two players who are making debut here while for China E. Liguang is the lone debutant.
Though Zhauong is modest in his opinion on the perspective of tomorrow’s match, the recent record shows the Chinese in the better frame. It is China that defeated India in the recent past that upset the Indian applecart. India did not recover at Doha after losing to China in the league, and then at Kuantan in Malaysia, despite leading 2-0 at half time, India had to settle for draw and with that was thus shunted out of the semis. Whether Asia Cup or Asian Games, we finished wihtout medals for the first time, and China’s emerging status was one of the prime factors behind those downfalls.
So, words apart, it won’t be just a learning curve for only China, it could be well for other team too, who are historically known to tumble against so called minnows.