JAKARTA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- "This was only the first match. We will learn from the mistakes and player better," said Zhang Chen, captain of the Chinese men's national volleyball team at the 18th Asian Games here on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the Chinese team suffered an unexpected loss to Vietnam during their opening game at the Games.
"We made too many mistakes, both in serving and first pass," said 33-year-old Zhang who serves as captain of the team playing here.
"We lost 42 points to Vietnam due to our errors, much higher than the 29 points that we scored through our opponents' mistakes," he added.
The unexpected loss has cast a shadow over the prospect for China to qualify for the next round.
"But the competition has just started. It's yet too early to tell the results, and we will do better in the next match," he said.
17-year-old Peng Shikun, also member of the Chinese team, said that the two teams were rather evenly matched, and the Chinese team should learn from their Vietnamese counterparts.
"Vietnam are a solidly united team, and during the match, whatever the scores were, they never gave up. We should learn from such spirits," said Peng.
As the youngest member of the team, Peng said that he felt a little nervous at first in the match and made a few mistakes. ?"But I told myself to relax. I'm still young, and should grasp every opportunity to play more and improve myself," he said.
The Chinese men's volleyball team will play Thailand in their second match at the Asiad on Wednesday.
