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.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS