KUALA LUMPUR: China coach Kim Sang Ryul has issued an early warning to the teams competing in the FIH Series Finals starting on Friday.
“This team is much better than the one who played in the World Cup (in Bubaneswar last year),” said Sang Ryul.
The South Korean master coach took China to their first ever World Cup, where they finished 10th, while Malaysia ended 15th out of 16 teams.
Malaysia will open accounts in the pre-Olympic Qualifier against Brazil on Friday, followed by China on April 28 and Italy on April 29.
In Group A are Canada, Austria, Wales and Belarus.
The top two teams in each group qualify for the semi-finals, while the second and third placed teams in each group fight for the other two semi-final slots.
Coach Roelant Oltmans’ Malaysian side should pay heed to Sang Ryul's warning, even though the Korean had overhauled 50 per cent of his World Cup side.
“We made nine changes to the World Cup squad as we had 18 Inner Mongolia players in Bhubaneswar. For Kuala Lumpur, I have nine from Inner Mongolia while the other nine are from many other provinces,” said Sang Ryul.
He was coaching Inner Mongolia but received a four-year contract from China recently.
In the World Cup, China held England 2-2 and Ireland 1-1 to advance to the next round but were beaten 1-0 by France in the play-off for quarter-finals.
Interestingly, China have four players with fewer than five caps, while 23-year-old Meng Lei will be making his
international debut.
But still, Sang Ryul is optimistic of China playing in the final.