Argentina line up friendly with China

December 13, 2001

World Cup favorites Argentina could be set for a friendly with China in the lead up to the World Cup finals, reports indicated Wednesday.

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, officials from the Chinese soccer association confirmed that the national team will take on the mighty Argentines in Japan shortly before the finals kick off on May 31st.

The reports would tally with comments by Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa during a press conference last week, when he indicated his team would play four games in the lead up to the finals not three as had previously been reported and said the final game would take place in Japan.

Two of those games will likely be against Denmark and Germany on April 17, while there will probably be another game against a leading European or African side in March. That would leave the China game as the final warm-up prior to the tournament.

As for China, coach Bora Milutinovic has lined up several big friendlies in the build-up to the finals, with the Asian side due to face Brazil and Portugal as well as Argentina.

Milutinovic's logic seems to be to give his team as much big-game practice as possible since his side face a tough draw which pits them against Brazil, Turkey, and Costa Rica in Group C.

As for Argentina, they face the hardest group of all, with England, Sweden and Nigeria lined up for Bielsa's lads.

There has not been any confirmation of the China game from the Argentine FA as of yet.

And if Argentina think they are in for an easy game against the Chinese, they should remember that the only time the two sides met -- in the Nehru Cup in India in January 1984 -- it was the Asians who won the game 1-0.

More recently Argentina's U-20 side played China's U-20 team in June in the second round of the World Youth Championship, with the South Americans squeezing a 2-1 victory.

Teamtalk