Zico to Visit China with Japan's Under-21 Soccer Squad

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, August 12, 2002

Zico to Visit China with Japan's Under-21 Soccer Squad

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Former Brazilian soccer genius Zico is about to visit China next week with Japan's under-21 youth soccer squad to see about the Japanese young players' competence and the status quo of the Chinese soccer.

As one of the celebrating activities to mark the normalization of China-Japan relations, a friendly between China's national Olympic team and the visiting Japanese under-21 youth squad will be staged in Shanghai on August 22.

Zico, who has become the new head coach of the Japanese national side, left Brazil for Japan on Saturday and is regroupingthe national team. It is believed that many Japanese players from the visiting youth team will play a key role in the future national team to compete for the qualification of the 2006 World Cup finals.

Zico has asked the Japanese Football Association (JFA) to organize at least three international contests for the national squad in the last three months of this year so that he can get familiar with and review all the players.

So far, the JFA has fixed an international friendly against theArgentine national team in Tokyo on November 29.

Zico has expressed the hope that a friendly with Jamaica could be held in October.

As the 2002 World Cup finals' co-hosts, Japan advanced beyond the group stage but was beaten by Turkey 1-0 in the knock-out stage.

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