Chinese women's soccer to take 'every chance' in Athens Olympics

Home>>Sports

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 12, 2004

Chinese women's soccer to take 'every chance' in Athens Olympics

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Chinese women's soccer team have not been given any target in the coming Athens Olympic Games but they will take "every chance" to fight for honor, a top Chinese soccer official said in Guiyang, southwest China��s Guizhou Province on Mar. 12.

Xue Li, vice-president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA)said: "The CFA will not assign a task to the players, but they will, as always, take every chance to perform well for their country."

"The Olympic Games pose a big occasion and you can never give up in an Olympic field," Xue said. "You must play your best in every game in Athens."

The Chinese Steel Roses, silver-medalists in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 1999 World Cup, have slumped in recent years and were humiliated in the quarter-finals by lowly Canada in the 2003 World Cup in Portland, the United States.

The Chinese team, which was rebuilt last December under new coach Zhang Haitao, has 60 percent of the players without any international experience.

"It's really a young team with an average age of only 24, nobody expects them to win a medal in Athens," Xue said.

"The women players can usually turn mature at 26, so we just hope they can do better in the 2007 World Cup and 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," she said.

The seven-time Asian champions, who were defeated in last year's Asian championships by DPR Korea, will have to fight for one of the two Olympic berths offered for Asia in the qualifying tournament in April.

Source: Xinhua

Questions?Comments? Click here

China women's soccer names squad for warm-ups in Europe

China women's soccer eyes on 2008 Olympics

Chinese women's soccer beats New Zealand in Australia Cup

Indian navy to have two aircraft carriers by 2011 ( 4 Messages)

What's the meaning of Bush & Blair nominated as candidates for Nobel Peace Prize? ( 31 Messages)

Study: Americans eating themselves to death ( 7 Messages)

Japanese PM's remark on shrine visit leads to long-term cold relations with China: Kyodo ( 10 Messages)

French Presidents' China complex ( 4 Messages)