Eckhard Krauztun played down Chinese media speculation that China can emulate surprise Euro2004 winners Greece after his boys thrashed Panama to continue their winning streak at the WYC.
"We are one of the best teams in the group stage and I'm pleased that we don't have any players banned or lots of injuries ahead of the next phase," said the German coach after Friday's 4-1 victory.
"Gao Lin, Chen Tao and Zhou Haibin all played very well in today's game, but in all the group games our team performances have been very good. Nine different players have scored our nine goals and this shows our good teamwork and spirit. It also means our whole team attacks and that we have many options in attack.
"How far we go in the competition really does depend on the effort we make and of course it also depends on who we face in the next round. We are not at the same level as Holland, Argentina or Brazil. I'm not sure we can be like Greece last year, but I'm very realistic because there's still some distance between us and the world class teams. So we shouldn't be over optimistic."
Shanghai Shenhua striker Gao Lin, who according to Krautzun 'played the perfect game' against Panama, said: "I'm very excited about my goal, and I appreciate the coach's faith in me. Krautzun praised my performance, but as a striker my task is to score goals, and I accomplished that today. It doesn't matter who we face in the next round. I believe we can progress in the tournament because of our ability."
Eckhard Krautzun will be looking to get captain Feng Xiaoting back in top shape for next week's round of sixteen match. "I didn't do very well today because of my injury, but I don't think it will affect me in the upcoming games," said the Dalian Shide defender. "Who do I prefer to meet in the last sixteen out of Germany and Argentina? It doesn't matter which team we face, we will try our best to get as far as possible in this tournament."
Shandong Luneng midfielder Zhou Haibin summed up the optimistic mood in the Chinese squad, saying: "I'm very happy. Three victories in a row is a massive confidence boost for us. We will take it one match at a time and try to do our best."
The Chinese soccer youth team will take on Germany on Tuesday in the knock-out phase. The two sides met in a warm-up in May and four goals in the game saw it end with a draw.
The other Asian squad in the last 16 is Japan, which will fight with Morocco for another seat in quarterfinals.
(sinosoc.com June 20, 2005)
