Tan Long's 67th-minute goal helped the Chinese men's national soccer team beat Hong Kong, China, 1-0, ending their trip to the East Asian Cup with one win, one draw and one loss. After the game, Coach Jankovic was blunt in the press conference, "Compared to the previous two games, the biggest difference in this game is that we finally broke the deadlock. We had our chances in the first half, but it was only in the second half that we finally scored, which is definitely a great boost to the young players' self-confidence."
Speaking about the overall performance of the East Asian Cup, Coach Jankovic said that the Cup was a valuable platform for training, "We were able to play against strong opponents, with South Korea and Japan both having made it to the
World Cup
final round. Our team is young and energetic and this is the second time in three years since the Dubai Cup that we have competed out of the country."
Jankovic further pointed out, "The high level of competition has allowed us to identify our shortcomings and clarify the direction of our efforts, with the goal of building a more competitive team. For example, in this East Asian Cup we discovered a shortcoming in physical fitness, which is a problem after three consecutive matches. Our goal is to excel in the Hangzhou Asian Games, which means we will play six games in three weeks, and we want to go far in the Asian Games, so the fitness problem must be solved. In addition, the technical and tactical details need to be honed."
Summarizing, Coach Jankovic confessed, "As a coach, I'm not completely satisfied with the team's performance because we lost a game after all, which has nothing to do with the strength of the opponent. Overall, we gained 4 points, we have more chances to play against strong teams, and we are growing from the first loss to the second draw to the late win, which is good news for me, and we will recognize our progress and continue to work hard."
Facing the team's imperfect performance, Coach Jankovic said, "As a coach, all the problems are my responsibility, and I will seriously analyze and summarize the situation and start a new job from early tomorrow morning."
