Chinese Soccer Faces Real Test

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 02, 2003

Chinese Soccer Faces Real Test

The Spanish super club Real Madrid arrived in Beijing on Friday morning and met with the world's media that afternoon for the first time in the capital.

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Real Madrid Arrives in Beijing

The Spanish super club Real Madrid arrived in Beijing on Friday morning and met with the world's media that afternoon for the first time in the capital.

The star-studded squad finished their week-long training in the high altitude training base in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, and headed to the Chinese capital for their first Asian tour match at the Workers' Stadium on Saturday.

Due to their heavy training load and long-distance travel, the club cancelled its visit to the Forbidden City in the morning. The afternoon news conference attracted about 320 journalists from home and abroad.

The three most popular Real stars - Raul Gonzalez, Ronaldo and English icon David Beckham - attended the news conference with the new head coach Carlos Queiroz.

Sun Kanglin, director of the Beijing Sports Bureau and organizer of the match, welcomed the world's most influential soccer club to the city.

"It is our honour to invite Real Madrid to play a preseason match against their Chinese counterparts, and it will be an exciting game for sure," he said.

The Spanish champions will face China's Dragon team, a 31-member squad drawn from four Chinese Series A First Division clubs - Yunnan Hongta, Shanghai Zhongyuan, Shenzhen Jianlibao and Beijing Hyundai.

"For most Real players, it is their first visit to Beijing and they have found fans here nice and enthusiastic," said Emilio Butragueno, the Real official.

Both Butragueno and Queiroz agreed that " the best way to reward our fans is to do a great football show."

The Real's captain Raul Gonzalez said, "We are very glad and happy to play the match in Beijing. We would like do an excellent game to thank the Chinese people for their affection. There should be no doubt that we will display our best football."

Real head coach Queiroz said he was satisfied with the training session in Kunming, where his training schedule was carried out smoothly with the co-operation of the local government.

However, the head coach of the Dragons Qi Wusheng is worried about the form of his players, who are in the midst of the league season and only gathered as a team on Thursday in Beijing.

"The team has not had very good preparation before the match and has had many difficulties in co-operation and physical abilities," Qi confessed. "These players are very tired after the league matches."

"But it is an opportunity for Chinese professionals to learn from the world's top team and we will try our best."

Li Weifeng, the Dragon's captain, said he was very excited to play with such a tremendous team and the most important thing was to "make the game worthwhile."

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