Chinese team holds mind-of-fact towards women's soccer World Cup
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2003-08-17 17:03

China's "steel roses" are neither downcast after a two-week's extraordinarily tough training, nor flighty for the coming women's soccer World Cup 2003, but ruly preparing for the competition, Zhang Ouying, a veteran player said in Beijing on Sunday.

As a stage of training in Dalian ended up on Saturday, all the Chinese internationals gathered again for an all-star cup to be performed here on Sunday evening.

This game is arranged to boost women's soccer in China, and make a chance for the girls in national team to meet their families, most of whom arrived specially from Shanghai, Sichuan and elsewhere of China, as well as to get heartened before they head for the United States.

"Compared with the last time, we now have a youngster-packed team to compete in the world cup. The younger girls take more vigor into our team and make the veterans spark a second adolescence as sportswomen, " Zhang, who attended the American World Cup four years ago, told Xinhua.

"But most of them lack the experience of playing in top international competitions, which may be a death-wound for a team aiming to be crowned in a world cup," Zhang added.

Ma Liangxing, the head coach of China women's team, said that the training in Dalian is satisfying, but it can not tell whether this stage of training can produce best results.

"Nothing can be sure now. All we can do is to be prepared well and spare no efforts in the competition from the right beginning to the end," Ma added.

China will play their first game of the fourth World Cup against Ghana on September 21 at Carson, Los Angeles.