China win friendly 3-0 while Camacho explains virtues of Spanish training camp

MADRID - The Chinese national football team this Monday enjoyed a comfortable 3-0 win over the Swiss side, FC Wil 1900.

In the game, which was played in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, China's goals were scored by Yu Hai, Yu Hanchao and Feng Xiaoting in what was a convincing performance against a side which plays in the second category of Swiss football.

China will remain in Spain for several more days to carry out pre-season preparations under the guidance of coach Jose Antonio Camacho. They will then travel to Oman to play a friendly game on January 30th before starting their qualification matches for the 2015 AFC Asia Cup, with that campaign kicking off away to Saudi Arabia a week later.

Interesting Saudi Arabia are coached by Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, who like Camacho had a brief spell as coach of famous Spanish club, Real Madrid.

Meanwhile this Monday an interview with Camacho appeared in a Malaga based newspaper in the south of Spain in which the China national team coach explained why the team were training in Jerez, so far from home.

"At the moment there are a lot of teams in Spain who are not competing in their counties at the moment, such as in China. It is eight or 10 degrees below freezing in Beijing now, and we look to play games, which is difficult now because there is no football," said Camacho.

"The most important Chinese clubs all leave the country and come here, to Malaga or Chiclana (a small town near Cadiz). There are around 70 or 80 foreign clubs here at the moment," he explained.  

Camacho extolled the virtues of club's training base in Jerez, which is a famous wine-producing town. "It is very quiet and has some of the best installations to play football that you could ask for. It has everything you need to do your job, especially in pre- season where you work morning and afternoon. It is ideal for pre- season," said Camacho, who admitted the Chinese players didn't see much of the area as they were too busy working.

"Normally we do a series of training exercises and then we have a rest. Maybe we can make a visit somewhere, but it has to be somewhere you know they will like," he explained.

Camacho was content with the progress he has made with the team since arriving in 2011, but admitted there is still work to be done.

"We have progressed, but people have to realize we are starting from scratch and we have to take it step by step. You can't do everything from one day to another: the customs, the way of working, society itself: a (Chinese) football player is not as adapted as a player in Spain for example," he said, adding that China had to develop in team sports.

"They have sports which are not so well known here in Spain, such as ping-pong or badminton and win everything at that. Let's say that in the Olympic Games, while Spain is still waiting to start they have already got seven or eight medals. It is a different mentality to Spain or Europe, but they are changing and it is obvious that China is an engine that doesn't stop and you can see every step they make," commented the coach.