Dujkovic: Refocusing on the Olympic Games

(BEIJING, June 16) -- After Chinese men's football team lost 1-2 to Iraq, which indicated China's farewell to the South African World Cup, Dujkovic withdrew his six Olympic-qualifiers back home and settle down to refocus on the forthcoming Olympic Games.

The past South African World Cup peripheral matches mainly featured on National Olympic Team players, with more experienced over-23 veteran players sitting on the bench waiting for a substitute opportunity that might never come. Dujkovic is later criticized by the media for misusing the World Cup preliminary competition as a "training session" for under-23 Olympic players, only at the expense of burying China's opportunity to advance to the World Cup.

Dujkovic chose to withdraw his Olympic players from lineup of the last preliminary match against Australia and leave the match to Vladimir, his executive coach. Players arranged to stay in China and concentrate on the Olympic preparation include: Zhou Hai-bin, Yuan Wei-wei, Feng Xiao-ting, Zhu Ting, Hao Jun-ming and Jiang Nin.

According to the Olympic Office in Shenyang, China men's Olympic football team will move in early July to Shenyang, where China's first two Olympic matches will be staged, for further training and a warm-up match against Team Vietnam on July 6.