Hope alive China have found right style

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By Chen Xiangfeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-03 09:17

Young and determined Chinese soccer coach Gao Hongbo has showed great courage to use an attractive style of play that produced positive results and won the acclaim of fans in his side's first two outings.

While previous coaches relied on tall and strong players, Gao, one of China's best strikers during his career, called on more skilled players of smaller stature and adopted a Spanish style of fast movement and short passing for his first two friendlies against Germany last Friday and Iran on Monday.

"A new soccer style will not be established in one day," Gao said.

"But we have showed a very good start and should never give it up."

Gao's new regime helped China overcome their past failure to control possession against top international teams to draw 1-1 with Germany in a Shanghai friendly on Friday evening .

Gao continued to throw caution to the wind by making nine changes for his line-up against a full-string Iranian side, an experiment that succeeded with a 1-0 win against the normally superior Asian opponents.

"I listed several new faces in the starting lineup, and the team were nervous in the first 15 minutes, but they adjusted themselves quickly after that and I'm very happy," he said.

"They were very concentrated on the pitch, and showed the power of teamwork."

The 43-year-old became the youngest man in 30 years earlier last month to take the reins of the national side.

Having churned through seven coaches since 2000, China's soccer team has been a nightmare post for more established mentors, whose efforts to introduce their own coaching style were hampered by intervention by the Chinese Football Association (CFA), which has long been attacked for putting results above all else.

Previous coaches were plagued by last-minute "suggestions" from CFA to call in players not in the formers' plans before big tournaments.

Gao hopes to enjoy the support of officials and fans even if the team produces bad results.

"China's soccer should rely on skills and speed," he asserts.

"We should play with teamwork as we can not match European players physically even if we choose the tallest and strongest players.

"We are trying to play with ball control, short passes and moves. I know it's not easy to stick to it and we will meet difficulties and setbacks in the future. But I hope officials and fans should support this team."

Sacking head coaches in the wake of bad performances at big tournaments and subsequent marathon deliberations by CFA for replacements, have become a vicious circle.

Friday's match was the first for the new coach, who has been charged with rebuilding the national team's fortunes after failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Gao says China boast many good players but that they need to hone and stick to an attacking style of play.

"We have players with very good dribbling ability and high speed. They are very suitable to my coaching style. But we have to use the same style consistently.

"We need more time to keep it in training and fix it in competitions. I hope people give us the time."

According to a public poll on leading portal sina.com, more than 80 percent of respondents were surprised by Gao's starting line-up, which featured short but skilled young players.

Half of them believe the new team has a bright future.

"It's a result we never imagined. This is a whole new start. The most important thing, though, was to give the Chinese fans a reason to believe in us again," said midfielder Hao Junmin, who scored the brilliant opening goal against Germany.

Defender Cheng Liang added: "Germany might have been tired and not in top form, but I think our performance was not bad at all."

Team morale received an extra shot in the arm when China edged Iran 1-0 to give the new coach his first victory at the Qinhuangdao Olympic Stadium on Monday.

Striker Gao Lin hit the winner at the end of the first half with a timely follow-up after left back Rong Hao's 25-meter freekick rebounded off the near post.

Coach Gao included debutants He Yang and Rong Hao in the second match and young side showed disciplined defense and sharpness in attack.

"I have never experienced such teamwork before," said striker Gao Lin. "We were playing with unity. We are on the right track now."

China next play Saudi Arabia in a friendly in Tianjin on Thursday.