China beats Jamaica to give coach Gao last gift
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Xinhua, August 11, 2011
China downed Jamaica 1-0 to make it the last gift for coach Gao Hongbo, who will likely be replaced by ex-spain coach Jose Antonio Camacho shortly, under heavy rain in Hefei, Anhui Province on Wednesday.
Central defender Zhao Peng scored the winner in the ninth minute with a powerful header in the box following Hao Junmin's corner.
"After the game (against Jamaica), I hope we could have a steady transition," said Gao at the pre-match press conference. But he kept silence at those questions about whether the game was his last time in position.
"I understand that every journalist wants a simple and clear answer, but I'm a Chinese coach, and I have to shoulder my responsibility to the team."
Gao have coached the team for the past two years and three months, but couldn't earn enough trust from the the Chinese Football Association (CFA) for the failure at the 2011 Asian Cup eariler this year. The CFA have being looking for a new coach to take over after the Asian Cup, and have contacted several famous coaches worldwide including Marcello Lippi, Frank Rijkaard.
But it's not until the Chinese real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin and his Wanda Group decided to subsidize in signing a world big name that the CFA could get so close with Camacho, who guided Spain to last eight at the 2002 World Cup and had two short periods at Real Madrid.
Camacho is likely to sign a contract with the CFA on this weekwend and will guide China to play the third round at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifying matches.
Gao Hongbo had some nice games in his reign, including the 3-0 win over South Korea, the first time that the Chinese men's national team beat S. Korea for the past 32 years, and the 1-0 victory over France before the 2010 World Cup. But all his good results were got in friendlies, and when it goes to big tournament like the Asian Cup, Gao's work was under heavy fire by the media and the fans.
During the Asian Cup, Gao's tactics and some inappropriate words were questioned by local media. The poor performance in the 0-2 defeat to hosts Qatar and the early exit from group stage downgraded Gao's coaching ability to great extent.
China will play Singapore on Sept. 2 on home soil, which means the new foreign coach have less than twenty days to train the Chinese team.
China are grouped with Singapore, Iraq and Jordan in the third round of the Asian Qualifying games, the top two teams of the group will advance to the fourth round (with 10 teams taking part).
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