Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2007-07-10 From: Xinhuanet

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Xinhua) — The Chinese national soccer team are planning some special tactics against Malaysia in view of the hot and damp climate conditions of the southeast Asian country in their opening match at the ongoing AFC Asian Cup.

“We may use different tactics to face southeast Asian teams,” head coach Zhu Guanghu told Xinhua at a news conference here on Monday.

“We had an unforgettable trip to Thailand this May. That makes me think of implementing different approaches to play under extreme conditions.”

China lost to Thailand 1-0 at an friendly about two months ago, in which the players seemed to be greatly affected by the hot wave and had poor performance.

In the first few matches of the Asian Cup, strong teams like Australia and United Arab Emirates were troubled by the harsh climate and lost their habitual way of play. Australia ground out a draw with Oman, while UAE were defeated by Vietnam 2-0.

Zhu is aware of the threats by the climate and the usual advantage of the hosts.

“The hosts are always the toughest rivals. Malaysia have improved a lot in recent years. They are familiar with our English premier league-based players.

“There have been changes in their techniques, and they have recruited some tall players.

“But we are expecting the first match very much. We will do our best and get the result we want in spite of those big difficulties.”

Malaysia are preparing to produce some surprise in the clash. Coach Norizan Bakar admitted that the nice performance of co-hosts Thailand and Vietnam have boosted his guys.

“The Vietnam and Thailand results have given us encouragement, but in fact we have also been motivated by ourselves because of what has been said about the standard of football in our country,” said Bakar.

“Now is the time, in fact now is the best time, for the playersand the team as a whole to show everyone that we can perform. We will see how motivated the players are tomorrow against China.

Bakar refused to reveal any specific tactics he would use against China, he said:” Of course I have my plans to contain the Chinese players, but you should wait and see them tomorrow.”