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With the fourth FIFA Women's World Cup only three days away, China head coach Ma Liangxing found it just impossible to repeat the feat his predecessor Ma Yuan'an achieved four years ago on the same soil.

The two Mas, dubbed Little Ma and Old Ma respectively by Chinese press, have now been put in very embarassing positions in the past two years.

Yuan'an, boss of the national team since late 1980s, coached the side to seven successive Asian champions, one Olympic silver medal and one World Cup runners-up.

Liangxing was named as the national head coach after Yuan'an's tragic defeat in the Sydney Olympic Games, where they failed to progress from the group stage.

Instead of sacking him from the national squad, Yuan'an was unblievably promoted by the Chinese Football Association as the general coach of the squad, although many thought it was just a honorary title.

Liangxing was pinned high hopes after taking office and expected to establish a younger team for this year's World Cup andthe Athens Olympics in 2004.

The Shanghai coach really took some bold steps to this end, bringing in some youngsters and leaving out of some Yuan'an's favourites.

But Liangxing's reform was soon interrupted after his side lost their Asian champion for the first time in 2001 to the rising Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which was justa shock just like the America's basketball Dream Team losing the world champion last year.

And that was just the beginning of the slump. China was again beaten in the final of the Asian Games last year by DPR Korea and proved second class once more early this year in the Asian championships.

A semi-retired Yuan'an naturally stepped in after the Chinese fans and football authorities began to lose confidence and patience for the mild-mannered Liangxing, who was reported that he could not win enough respect from the players, especially those non-Shanghai women.

Yuan'an had been apparently involved in team selections becauseLiangxing called up some of his veterans aged thirty something, including a retired right back Wang Liping. While 30-year-old striker Sun Wen, who had retired from international football since 2000, was persuaded to take over the captain's armband again.

The squad, now warming up in New York for their World Cup opener with Ghana on Sept. 22 in Los Angeles, were again turning an old face, with most of the 11 starters coming from Yuan'an's 1999 World Cup team, including strikers Sun and Bai Jie, midfielders Zhao Lihong, Liu Ying and Zhang Ouying, defenders FanYunjie, Wang and Liu Yali (left-back).

"Coach Ma Yuan'an guided China to a very high position," Liangxing said last week before leaving Beijing for Washington. "I hope, through a successful World Cup trip this time, we can step out of his aura. "

But the ageing side will simply find it unlikely to progress further than semifinals before impressive sides Norway and hosts the United States.

Even if they managed to reach the title battle again, it's more a Old Ma's feat than Little Ma's.

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