Jose Antonio Camacho has endured a harsh initiation as head coach of the Chinese national soccer team.

His squad was knocked out of Brazil World Cup qualification three months after the controversial move to have him replace coach Gao Hongbo. With no formal international games to play in 2012, the Spaniard was questioned about what exactly he had achieved since arriving in China in August, 2011.

However, if the 57 year-old felt last year was a tough one, he hasn't seen anything yet. China's first Asian Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning ended in a 2-1 loss on the road and Camacho's substitutions - or lack thereof - drew widespread condemnation.

The coach made his first change in the 81st minute after the Saudis had scored their second goal, and he replaced Zhao Xuri, who had troubled the Saudi defense and scored China's only goal, in the first half.

CCTV commentators Liu Jianhong and Xu Yang described Camacho's delayed substitution as "incomprehensible".

"Does Camacho have no players to use? Are those sitting on the bench just training partners?" the duo said during the game.

Former national team forward Li Yi wrote on his weibo account, "Fairly speaking, the young men played well today, and I hope the fans and media will be lenient to them. But Camacho was out of touch".

In a sina.com poll, more than half of the participants said the coach should take full responsibility for the loss.

Chinese Football Association deputy head Yu Hongchen, who indicated the Asian Cup would play an important part in the evaluation of Camacho's work, said after the loss that the CFA has not considered sacking the Spanish coach before his contract expires in March, 2014, even if China fails to secure a berth at the final stage of the Cup.

"We just finished one game and it's too early to make conclusions about the final results. It's unnecessary to make such assumptions now," Yu said.

"This result did disappoint the public, but people should face the reality of Chinese soccer," he said. "It's impossible to solve the problems in a day. We should be confident and patient."

Chinese soccer expert Jin Zhiyang said China is no longer a competitive team in Asia and should start to build up a solid foundation through youth development.

"The game was a real reflection of the standard of the Chinese team," said Jin, who leads the campus team at the Beijing Institute of Technology. "Both China and Saudi Arabia are pseudo powerhouses in Asia, and either side could have won this game. We should not be too upset about the result." he said.

The Chinese team will play its second Asian Cup qualifier against Iraq in Changsha on March 22.

tangzhe@chinadaily.com.cn