CHINA’S young guns are riding high after humbling Indonesia 5-0 to emerge as the Group A winners on Monday. And it earned them glowing praises from their chief coach, Li Yongbo (pic), who now believes that he has a team to wrest the Thomas Cup from Indonesia. But Yongbo caused an uproar when he told the translator to inform the journalists that the press conference that he was giving was only for the Chinese media. The media had requested for a press conference with Yongbo immediately after China had taken the unassailable 3-0 lead to gain a direct entry to the quarter-finals. Yongbo later agreed to have his statements translated to English and Bahasa Indonesia. “I see big potential in the current crop of players that I have brought here. They did very well today, especially the doubles pair (Fu Haifeng-Cai Yun), who are making their first appearance in the Thomas Cup Finals stage),” he said. “We have secured a big win and I believe this will make the players more confident for the bigger challenges ahead. “We will be facing tougher hurdles from the quarter-finals. But I have no doubt that my players will pull it off this time. All of them can win a point for the team.” The win over Indonesia put China in the top half of the draw and they are tipped to play against South Korea in the semi-finals. The last time China won the Thomas Cup was in 1990 in Tokyo. Since then, they have only reached the final once – in 2000 in Kuala Lumpur and they were beaten 0-3 by Indonesia. TheStar
