China's national soccer team say they will stay united and try their best to make it to the next stage of the Asian qualification for FIFA World Cup 2014, sina.com reported Monday.
The team will visit Iraq on Friday, and grapple for three points in the hope to secure one of the top two places in Group A with Jordan, Singapore and Iraq.
"We have to win the game, our object is to win three points, otherwise we will be eliminated. We will face much difficulty in the game, and we must be fully mentally prepared to get over it," said Yu Hongchen, deputy head of the Chinese Football Administrative Center, in a mobilization meeting with team members in Hebei on Sunday.
China made it to the World Cup 2014 preliminaries of the top 20 Asian teams by beating Laos on July 23. However, it has gained only three points out of the three matches played by beating Singapore 2-1, compared to nine points for Jordan and six points for Iraq.
Singapore is currently at the bottom of the group, losing all three matches it played.
If it loses the game on Friday, China will be ruled out of the top 10 Asian team knockout stage, given that both Jordan and Iraq are likely to win at least three points in the next three matches.
National soccer veteran Zheng Zhi said on the meeting, "We were so eager to win that we lost the last game... We must trust each other and trust the team. We will have the strength to beat Iraq as long as we are united."
At the end of the meeting, the coach team played a video entitled "dedicated to those who are still fighting for national soccer," in a bid to inspire the team to give its best in the next match.
