NAGOYA: Chinese football has "a fantastic future" after winning their first Asian Games medal in nearly three decades on Saturday, their men's under-23 coach said.
Football's great underachievers have only qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, and the senior side were hammered 5-0 at home by Palestine on Friday.
But China have enjoyed recent relative success at youth level and followed up their runner-up finish at the Under-23 Asian Cup in February with a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Japan.
China beat Uzbekistan on penalties after a 2-2 draw and coach Antonio Puche said he expects the new generation to go on to bigger and better things.
"These players for me have a fantastic future," said the Spaniard.
