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Chinese Women Soccer Team Keep Low Tone at University Games
The Chinese women's soccer team set a low tone before Thursday's opening Group A match against Finland at the University Games.
"We have no specific objective here," said Chinese head coach Ma Yuan'an on Wednesday. "We just want to ensure we play every game as well as we can."
China, runners-up to the United States at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 and the World Cup in 1999, are in the same preliminary round group with Brazil and Finland.
With top two finishers from each of the four groups in the 12- squad competition qualifying for the quarter-finals, the hosts are widely believed to have locked a seat in top eight. However, the Chinese women took nothing for granted.
"We should not look down upon anybody and the important thing is to get prepared physically and spiritually." Ma, who took the helm of the Chinese team in 1991, added.
The Chinese women, who won the country's first ever world soccer title at the women's soccer tournament of the 18th Universiade in Buffalo, the United States, looked beyond the Universiade to the World Cup in 2003 and the Athens Olympics in 2004.
"As hosts, we would like to have good results," said Wang Liping, gold medalist in Buffalo. "But the more important thing for us is to practice for the World Cup and the Olympics."
The Chinese team is missing six players from the World Cup runners-up team. They are playing in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) in the United States, among whom are Chinese top scorer Sun Wen and star goalkeeper Gao Hong.
Other title contenders here include France, who beat South Africa 9-1 on Tuesday, Brazil, 1-0 winners over Finland and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
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