Marika Domanski-Lyfors has been tasked to take her reviving Chinese side to the semi-finals or beyond in the upcoming Women's World Cup, a feat they are reckoned to be dubiously capable of.

 

As the first ever women's football foreign coach in China, the 47-year-old Swede was in a process of transforming the Chinese team who was left in shambles after a string of losses in the Algarve Cup tournament and was disenchanted with the managerial infighting which culminated in the walkout of Domanski's predecessor Ma Liangxing.

 

"We could not work out on a consistent basis, especially after Mr. Ma left," a player complained.

 

"The meddling of the Chinese FA officials disrupted our training plan, the caretaker Wang Haiming and his coaching staff could not exert their authority on the FA officials as well as the players.

 

"That is the underlying reason for our fiasco in the Algarve, the losses including a 4-1 drubbing by the minnows Iceland thrust us into a big crisis. We did not know what we were capable of, our morale could be found nowhere," she said.

 

Frightful free fall

 

Ma's departure defined what had been wrong with the Chinese side at the managerial level, a scourge undermined the "Rose of Steel" who had once enjoyed a short-lived glory.

 

Under the guidance of Ma Yuan'an, an illustrious figure in China's women football, the Chinese side played in style and swept their way with a flourish into the final of the 1999 World Cup where they lost to hosts the United States in penalty shootout.

 

Then they suffered a frightful free fall highlighted by their 8-0 thrashing at the hands of Germany in the Athens Olympic Games.

 

Ma Yuan'an, acclaimed as godfather of Chinese women's football, stepped down after his side failed to qualify for the knockout stage in the football tournament of the Sydney Olympics.

 

Then Chinese FA began to engage in a frenzy of coach appointings and sackings, but never found an ideal one who could bring them glorious results.

 

"It's not the coaches' fault, they were scapegoats," said Zhang Wei, a Titan magazine reporter who is following the Chinese side.

 

"It's the fault of FA officials who are fixated on kudos. On one hand they wanted a submissive coach who would tolerate their intervention in the team affairs, on the other hand, they did not believe in the coach's abilities and always sticked their nose into the team management.

 

"Ma Liangxing rejected to be a lackey and was falling out with them, and finally he grew weary of it and left citing ill health.

 

"The too constant change of head coaches has amounted to a farce which unsettled the players," he said.

 

An FA official produced a riposte to Zhang's utterance, claiming that the Chinese native coaches are not professional enough and untrustworthy.

 

"The only way to tackle this predicament was to find an established foreign coach who can take full responsibility of the team issues, and then we would be content of doing our own business.

 

"That was the reason why we chose Domanski, she proved herself when she took Sweden to the final in the 2003 World Cup," he said.

 

A team too young

 

What Domanski took over was a young and low-spirited team with no proved stars in the international arena, and her every public behavior was put under close scrutiny by the local media, and especially her detractors.

 

She won universal approval after winning a record of four friendly victories and one draw with the team in her fledgling stint at the helm of a new-look Steel Roses side.

 

"Domanski brought into our team a lot fresh and new training methods and communication means, she helped arrest our free fall and we're winning and gaining in confidence," said central defender Li Jie.

 

"We are convinced of her coaching and she has complete authority in our team, we are upbeat about our prospect in the World Cup. I think to reach the final four is very possible for us," she said.

 

But their future suddenly looked ominously uncertain in mid-August when they lost back-to-back friendlies to Australia in Tianjin's newly-built magnificent Waterdrop Stadium.

 

"The players seemed to be intimidated by the immensity of the sell-out crowd and the grandeur of the stadium, they are too young to come to terms with it," said China's former goalkeeper Gao Hong.

 

"We can judge from their performance that the team is not psychologically mature. They displayed an admirable fighting spirit, but only with that you can hardly go far in the expectedly bruising World Cup," she said.

 

"China are no longer a top-class team now, physically they are not as strong as Germany and skillfully they are no match to Brazil. They are becoming a team with no characteristics," she lamented.

 

The conundrum for Domanski is that she could not find a decent midfield, according to China's former playmaker Liu Ailing.

 

"I found they worked very hard, but their tactical awareness and technical skills are not up to scratch, so they could produce very little fluent teamwork," she said.

 

Her perception was shared by Shang Ruihua, who coached China in the inaugural World Cup in 1991.

 

"I found their midfield can hardly operate effectively, this is a problem that Domanski cannot solve in a short time. Now let us see what magics she can work with the team," he said.

 

Ren Liping, another China's former midfielder, took a rather dim view of the Chinese side's run in the World Cup.

 

"They fixed their target on the final four, I think this is something beyond their reach as they are too young and inexperienced," she said.

 

An insider disclosed that a sense of discomfort was spreading inside the Chinese setup following their last loss to Australia.

 

"Judged from their performance, the goal achievable for them perhaps should be to try to qualify for the knockout stage," he said.

 

A blessing in disguise

 

Domanski remained sanguine arguing that the losses could serve as a blessing in disguise.

 

"Our real battlefield is the World Cup, winning or losing in the warm-up games count for nothing, what really counts is how we played the games. I still believe that China is a not bad team," she said.

 

She drew her personal experience with Sweden to soothe her detractors, saying: "Four years ago our Swedish side also did not perform well in the friendlies prior to the World Cup, but when the World Cup got underway, we're winning all the way and finally finished runners-up."

 

"Though China lost to Australia this time, we will learn some lessons from it, and make some adjustments accordingly. This will be very helpful for us to play the World Cup," she added.

 

Following China's 1-0 win over England on August 26 in Macau, their last warm-up games leading up to the World Cup, Domanski announced her squad for the World Cup including Zhang Ouying, Han Wenxia and Xia Caixia, three veterans who had been discarded by Ma Liangxing.

 

"This showed that Marika is counting on the veterans to play the World Cup," said defender Liu Yali.

 

"We are a young team, we need the veterans and their experience is our prized asset. Without the veterans to anchor the team, the young players tend to make easy mistakes which could ruin our whole campaign," she added.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)