Chinese Footballers Pledge to Take “Group of Death” Literally

The World Cup 2010 qualifying draw was not kind to China. In the first round of Asian qualifying China were drawn in Group Five alongside Australia, Asian Cup holders Iraq and Asian Games champions Qatar. Only the top two teams go through to the second stage of qualifying, and so Group Five has been dubbed the Group of Death. China’s response was a worryingly aggressive promise to make it through to World Cup 2010. With the Chinese Football Association dangling a $1 million carrot in front of the team, the Chinese players gathered together and made a pledge to the nation:

“I pledge to advance to the World Cup, which is the professional goal that we strive for. We swear by death to kill along the bloody road of defending the honour of the motherland and realise our youthful dreams.”

Big words indeed, but I feel sorry for the poor players who had to read this. Surely every player (except maybe Jamie Carragher) wants to qualify for major tournaments and the Chinese team already faced an uphill battle to qualify from this first group phase, let alone the actual World Cup finals. So to “swear by death” and have big cash prizes on offer only increases the pressure on the players in an already difficult situation. We’ll know more next month when Asian World Cup Qualifying begins on February 6th, and China take on Iraq.

via Sanford’s Soccer Net