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SOUTH AFRICA 2010: Australia's Verbeek attacks China over its choice of venue

Australia coach Pim Verbeek has attacked China's plan to play this month's World Cup qualifier at high altitude but said his team would respond to the challenge.

Verbeek said China were trying to make life difficult for Australia by playing the March 26 match in Kunming, "a place nobody has heard of" 1,900m above sea-level.

"Probably we will have the better players, so the only way [for China] to beat us is to make it as difficult as possible -- and that's why they play in Kunming and not in Beijing or Shanghai," Verbeek told yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald.

"They're not stupid. On purpose they play at 1,900 meters, on purpose they ask us to travel longer than normal -- that's why we play in a place nobody has heard of," Verbeek said. "But on the other hand, I think that is a mistake, because our players are very willing to show it doesn't matter at all."

Verbeek, who watched China lose to South Korea and Japan in the recent East Asian Championships, said despite the difficulties, Australia will be playing for a win.

"At this moment, I go for three points. I don't go for a draw. The players want to show we have the better team, so we go there to win," he said.

China's 1-1 draw with Iraq and Australia's 3-0 win over Qatar last month gave Australia a head-start in the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup and Verbeek said all the pressure is on China and their new coach, Vladimir Petrovic.

"China is one of those countries where the fans definitely expect their team to win," he said. "And they have to win, because after the draw against Iraq, they have to beat us."

"They have a lot of new players in the team. They have had a very long preparation and during that preparation the coach sent out five or six players because he was not happy with them," he said.

Verbeek said he will again focus on European-based players for his final squad, but will field a team largely of domestic A-League players in a warm-up match against Singapore on March 22.

Australia have beaten China five times in seven meetings and won their last match 2-0 in Guangzhou in March last year.
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