Team A will play New Zealand on Friday night in the city of Wuhan and later face Honduras there on Tuesday, while head coach Gao Hongbo is already in Costa Rica to lead Team B in a match against that country on Sunday.
The double-teaming comes after Gao invited a total of 40 players to train for the national side ahead of World Cup 2014 qualifying, which begins in late June.
In China’s first and only appearance in a World Cup final in 2002, the team failed to win a match or even score during the event, jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea.
Their failure to reach the knockout stages of the 2011 Asian Cup in Doha two months ago further deepened fan frustration over the inability of the world’s most populous nation to succeed in the world’s most popular sport.
According to China’s Titan Sports Weekly, the splitting of the team was due to a scheduling conflict after Costa Rica invited China to play in the maiden event at its new National Stadium in San Jose — built with Chinese aid.
“Our main plan is to give the fans an exciting match. I’m not too worried about the score,” Gao told the paper.
Gao, 45, the youngest person to coach China’s national team, was tasked with qualifying for Brazil 2014 when he took the helm in May 2009.
He has overseen a steady rise up the FIFA world rankings from 108 to a current position of 76, but his team’s Asian Cup performance has left fans with few expectations for the upcoming campaign.
The fortunes of China’s national side are a source of chagrin for many supporters, while domestic professional clubs have been beset by a match-fixing, gambling and graft scandal.
The scandal has resulted in the arrests of two former national football association heads and a number of lower-level officials.
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China Begins Quest For 2014 World Cup