Ma Liangxing, the man who led the Chinese women's national team
to the AFC Women's Asian Cup title in July, has expressed his
delight on the twin nominations bagged by him and his charges for
prestigious year-end AFC awards.
While Ma is a strong candidate for AFC Coach of the Year
accolade, his team, who defeated Australia in the final to be
crowned Asian champions, are vying for AFC Women's Team of the Year
award.
"It is my great honor to be nominated as one of the AFC best
coaches of the year. It is due to great team work that China won
the AFC Women's Asian Cup this year," Ma told www.the-afc.com.
When asked about the other aspirants, Ma said he wouldn't be
surprised if DPR Korea U-20 women's coach Choe Kwang-sok, who
steered his team to the FIFA U-20 Women's Championship title after
defeating China, scooped the honor.
"I think Choe Kwang-sok should win this title. The DPR Korea
women's team's performance was excellent this year."
With the Asian Games in Doha looming, Ma is currently in a
training camp in Hangzhou. But the demanding trainer was not happy
with the way things were shaping up.
"Our progress has been slow these last few years and I have been
trying to speed up things. However, we have to spend more time on
improving ourselves," he said.
"I am not totally satisfied with our preparation for the Doha
Asian Games. We have played only two friendlies and in these our
rivals were not very strong. We will play New Zealand tomorrow but
this is not enough.
"As the head coach, I must set a high target for the whole team
so that everyone can work harder to achieve that goal. It isn't
easy to win the title as Japan, South Korea, DPR Korea are all in
better shape and quality, especially the last team."
With the Women's World Cup going back to China in September
2007, Ma said there was much more to be done if the hosts are to
make an impression.
"We are facing challenges from all directions. We still need to
improve our ability to be more competitive in the World Cup next
year," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2006)