{"id":11460,"date":"2010-09-02T17:06:44","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T00:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/02\/depleted-china-prepare-for-iran-clash\/"},"modified":"2010-09-02T17:06:44","modified_gmt":"2010-09-03T00:06:44","slug":"depleted-china-prepare-for-iran-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/02\/depleted-china-prepare-for-iran-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Depleted China prepare for Iran clash"},"content":{"rendered":"
AFC – ZHENGZHOU, Injuries to key players and league commitments have seriously depleted China’s strength ahead of this Friday’s friendly against arch-rivals Iran.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

After the friendly against Iran, China will cross swords with FIFA World Cup quarter-finalists Paraguay on September 7 at Nanjing. <\/p>\n

The Chinese Super League is on a two-week break during this period. <\/p>\n

Injured striker Qu Bo and first-choice goalkeeper Zheng Cheng, together with midfielders Deng Zhuoxiang and Yu Hanchao all reported for training on Tuesday but have only a slim chance of making it to the squad. <\/p>\n

Jeonbuk Motors’ Feng Xiaoting, who is the only foreign-based player in the team, and former PSV Eindhoven midfielder Zhou Haibin are both doubtful starters due to tiredness, according to the team doctor. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gao Lin, Sun Xiang and Zheng Linfan, who ply their trade in the Chinese First Division, have both opted out because of club commitments during the weekend. <\/p>\n

Dubbed “China’s Peter Crouch” for their similarity in height, 196cm tall Wuhan youngster Tan Yang might well make his national team debut against Iran. <\/p>\n

Despite a 1-0 victory over Iran in a friendly not long ago, China head coach Gao Hongbo dares not to think big considering his team’s problems. <\/p>\n

“Iran are one of the big teams in Asia and a very strong opponent. I can’t really predict the outcome of this match,” said Gao. <\/p>\n

“Our main objective is preparing ourselves well for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011\u2122 challenge. This is what matters most, he said. <\/p>\n

China are in Group A for the continental showpiece with Kuwait, hosts Qatar and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Ranked 77 in the world, China have never won the AFC Asian Cup. They finished runners-up in the 1984 and 2004 editions.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – ZHENGZHOU, Injuries to key players and league commitments have seriously depleted China’s strength…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":3576,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}