Team History

Team China were feared amongst the Asian group for a long period of time. Although China has never claimed the title (except the East Asia Cup in 2005), its presence has been acknowledged as one of the best teams in Asia. However, the team failed to move from the “Asian league class” to Europe or even Africa standard as displayed by the team lacklustre performance in the World Cup and other international soccer events.

However, China remains to a strong team in Asia as showed by their performance in the last Asian Cup in 2004. Navigated by the famous coach, Arie Haan, China inched steadily to the cup before losing to its rival Japan.

With such performance, the public expected China to qualify to Germany for the 2006 World Cup. However, the team performed poorly and failed to secure a place resulting in Arie Haan’s dismissal. When interviewed Arie Hann said although the players are very skilled, they are lacking in confidence due to high public pressure. China often lost crucial matches at home, and sometimes to weaker teams. The disciplines of the players was often marked as lacking by foreign coaches.

Arie Haan was replaced by Zhu Guanghu who led the Chinese to claim the East Asian Cup in 2005. However, the Chinese still displayed a lack of consistency in 2006 by almost failing to qualify to the Asian Cup final stage. China only won 1-0 against Singapore through a controversial penalty.

Notable Chinese footballers have been few and far between. However several names stand out such as Fan Zhiyi who has played for Crystal Palace and Yang Chen who was the first Chinese player to score in European major leagues. Chinese legendary striker, Hao Haidong was also amongst the first few batches of Chinese footballers who tasted the European atmosphere.

In the present, the number of Chinese players in Europe has risen rapidly. Several successful names such as Sun Jihai who is a regular fixture at Manchester City, Dong Fangzhuo who was labeled as the wonder kid from China plays for Manchester United, and midfielder Shao Jiayi plays for Energie Cottbus.

Armed with more European breath, China is again expected to have success in the latest Asian Cup. However several friendly matches yielded disappointing results which turned down the public hope upon the team. The coach Zhu Guanghu said that despite the disappointing performances, the team has shown a considerable improvement and is in high spirit.

Team News

China was flattened 4 – 1 by USA in a friendly match in early June. The Chinese displayed disappointing defensive coordination resulting in many goals scored by the Sam’s army. Goalkeeper Dong Chen was ruled out to the reserve squad as a result of this disappointing performance.

Zhu Guanghu also made a controversial decision by including injury prone midfielder Li Tie while ruling out Chinese league top striker, Li Jianyi. Although Li Tie was a backbone to Everton, he was unable to play for more than two years due to his broken leg and had never been on top performance since. Li Jianyi was the top scorer of Chinese league last year although failed to display equally impressive results this year. The public still consider Li Jianyi as a worthy candidate for the Asian Cup. Zhu Guanghu reasoned that Li Tie presence still had a positive effect to the whole team in general although he is on the bench.

Key Players

Zhu Guanghu took his players mainly from two big Chinese league clubs, Shanghai Shenhua and Shangdong Luneng. In the goalkeeper ranks, Guanghu places confidence in Li Lei Lei who is a superb keeper. The defense unit will be coordinated well by the presence of Sun Jihai. Sun Jihai has over 5 years experience in the main squad of some Premiership clubs. Veteran Li Weifeng will team up with Sun Jihai to lead the defensive line.

The Chinese midfield is often criticized as lacking any playmaker or creativity. Even though Li Tie plays, his role still does not fulfill the deficit. Charlton midfielder, Zheng Zhi is also more a breaker type than a playmaker. However modern football does not rely on playmaker creativity solely to attack the opponent’s goal. With proper coordination of midfielders led by Shao Jia Yi, experienced Energie Cottbus midfielder, the Chinese can still ensure a good flow to their strike force.

Of course Dong Fangzhuo is the number one choice for striker in the Chinese side. The Manchester United player bears a heavy burden to prove his capacity as a player in the best club in the world.

Expected Result

Although the public want China to win the Asian Cup trophy this year, they would be satisfied with even a second place which is China’s previous best performance in the Asian Cup. But the journey will not be easy this year with Australia’s presence in the tournament. China are in group C with Iran, Uzbekistan and the host Malaysia. China’s progression will be a tough battle.

China will face the host, Malaysia, in the first match. Although Malaysia is predicted to be one of the weakest amongst in group C, it is yet too premature to call a Chinese win over the host team. China had trouble winning against Singapore which is believed to be only slightly above Malaysia. If the Chinese could not win confidently against Malaysia, the next matches against Iran and Uzbekistan can prove to be disastrous. Iran is of course in the elite league of Asian Cup with more and more players playing for European teams while Uzbekistan is also strong opposition in its own right. If China are not careful, the top two spots in Group C could fall into the hand of Uzbekistan and Iran or even Malaysia! . You can watch China live as they play out their games in the Asian Cup online.