Milutinovic Upbeat About his New Team

Chinese soccer's new boss Bora Milutinovic is pleading for the press to give him and his team a break, after they executed another mobbing tide on the Chinese national squad since the goalless friendly with Japanese national team on March 15 in Kobe.

The experienced Serb guru said he was surprised to find that some press had been too picky and maligned the national team at a news conference on Monday.

He said the press is more interested in the dark side, while claiming he is always seeking for something positive.

Contrary to much of the public view, he defended his team as having a steady mind facing a "powerful" Japanese squad though was on the defensive for most of the match.

China managed to narrowly escape a 0-0 draw with the star-studded hosts who called back three players from European top clubs Hidetoshi Nakata from AS Roma, Hiroshi Nanami of Venezia and Spanish-based Shoji Jo from Real Valladolid, for the match.

China's goalie Jiang Jin was highlight of the night with his superb saves and prevented a otherwise lopsided game.

But a hard fought draw still did not satisfy the press, which censured the team for a embarrassing show.

"They are fairly well," Milutinovic argued. "They are playing with a strong team and they exerted their best efforts to act as a whole and they made it.

"It is not easy for them to do it in that way and I'm more optimistic about the future of the team after the match."

The coach, who had been on the post for less than three weeks, considers his footballers just as good as their Japanese counterparts and what they lack is international experience.

"They have to play more and get to know other better teams as well as themselves," he said.

He has organized a busy flying schedule for the team.

Later this month, the team will travel to play against the Yugoslavia national team and take on Hong Kong team or a Middle East squad next month.

On May 25, it will meet the visiting Yugoslavians again.

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