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A former colony of Portugal, Macau was reinstated to the People's Republic of China on 20 December 1999. Since then, Macau had to rely on its own effort to rebuild their football as they could no longer call upon the individual skills of inspired Portuguese players, which was a vestige of the colonial past, to a more organized game generating from diligent Chinese players.
Football is still very young and in its infancy in Macau. They are receiving help from others such as the Japan Football Association who had previously funded the appointment of coaches Eiji Ueda and assistant coach Masataka Imai. Both have since left. However, they were deemed as pioneers in laying the important foundation of grassroots football in Macau.
Although still considered the minnows of the game, Macau is showing plenty of improvement. When they played Japan in the first round of the 1998 FIFA World Cup?Asian Preliminary Competition, they lost 0-10 in both matches. However, two years later in the Asian Cup qualifiers, they held their own and only lost by three goals.
Under the full leadership of head coach Imai, Macau participated in the East Asian Football Championship Preliminary Competition in February, 2003 in which they achieved their best ever international result, finishing third in a five team competition.
In goalkeeper Domingos Chan, Macau can pride itself in having one of the best goalkeepers in East Asia. He is currently playing professional football in Hong Kong. This could just be the start of more to come.
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