China in your hand

for China’s

under-19s

CHINA head coach, Su Maozhen, is promising that his team will deliver their own distinctive brand of football this week.

It’s the first time that the national team of China has played in the under-19 Elite section and Su Maozhen is determined that his side makes their indelible mark on the tournament.

The team lost 1-0 to America on Monday.

“We will try our best to play our own football. The teams that are here are all strong and will provide good opposition for us.”

China opened their Milk Cup campaign on Monday evening with a game against USA and will play Northern Ireland in Ballymoney on Wednesday.

The coach said the team had prepared very well for this week’s matches before making a long and tiring journey to Northern Ireland.

“Before this we went to North Korea for a few matches. We then went to Beijing for three or four days training.

“We flew 11 hours from Beijing to London where we stayed for one night before coming here. We are all very happy and excited about everything.”

Most of the squad play for teams in the China Super League or First Division and have dreams of a successful career in the professional game.

“All the players play for the either their club’s second teams or reserves - they are not at the top level yet but they have the potential to be,” Su Maozhen said.

Football is enormously popular in China and the coach added that there is great media interest in how the team performs this week.

“There is a lot of attention on the team from newspapers and media. The Milk Cup is quite famous and people know about it.

“We will face very good opposition here. We are happy to be the first under-19 team from China to play in the tournament.”