WARM UP: Shaanxi Blind Football Team get ready for a day's training (QIN ZHENZI)

Taking the field

In 2010, when the team took part in the qualifying competition of National Para Games, a Super League match went on nearby.

Zhang thought it was a good opportunity to let the children experience the atmosphere of a professional Chinese Football Association match. After they finished their own competition, they sat in the grandstand enraptured by thunderous cheering and the raucous beating of gongs and drums.

"Will we play football in such a stadium someday?" Li Yu asked Zhang.

Just finding a humble practice field would have been a big problem for the team in this summer were it not for the help from Xi'an City Sports Park. The school has no standard playground for their training, only an open concrete floor.

"The children are unable to see. They would easily fall down kicking balls on the hard ground," Zhang said.

The team is allowed to use the football field in the park when it isn't otherwise booked. The players go to the park hand-in-hand early every morning.

While running on the track, each of the children moves the arms freely and strides firmly, yet in fairly rigid and coordinated formation. They turn corners with such effortless grace that a casual observer might not know that they are visually impaired.

Only their visors, worn low over the eyes, and the constant shouting of "Oi! Oi! Oi!" serve as cues that the players are not relying on visual senses to keep track of one another's position.

It is hard to believe that before they joined the team, they had difficulties walking without feeling around with their hands. But football changed them into something extraordinary.