China could learn from Dutch football, says Van Gaal

Dutch head coach Louis van Gaal believes Chinese soccer can learn from Dutch football during the forthcoming Asia trip, he said during an interview with Xinhua before departure.

Van Gaal has already visited China for holidays last year, but football-wise he has not much knowledge of the Asian country.

"Actually nothing and that is not much," he told Xinhua. "But we will have to ascertain ourselves about Chinese football.

"In principle, we always watch the last two matches, also of the Chinese national team. We analyze these matches and my assistants then show the images.

"I take a look at those two games as well and then we discuss and adjust our tactic. But we did not do that yet, because the first match is against Indonesia, so we are trying to analyze that opponent first. After Indonesia comes China. We never mix two matches."

The Chinese team has a Spanish coach, Jose Antonio Camacho, with whom Van Gaal is familiar. When the Dutchman became coach of FC Barcelona in 1997 Camacho was coach of Espanyol. In 2000 both met as national coaches of the Netherlands and Spain in November 2000.

"We won that game, which was very surprising," said the 61-year-old Dutchman. "We won 1-2 in Seville. My relationship with colleagues is always good. I have great respect for my colleagues. The same applies for the team we play against. I always analyze our opponents. I'll never let my team play and tell them to play their own game. I also look at the qualities of an opponent."

The Dutch team is a powerhouse in international football, currently number 9 on the FIFA ranking, while China is ranked number 86th in the world.