China's flaws exposed again as Cannavaro left helpless

The downcast expression on Fabio Cannavaro's face said it all. The former captain of Italy's World Cup winning side injected brutal honesty into CHINA's predicament when he admitted There's no such thing as overnight success for Team Dragon.

Years of diminishing targets for CHINA reached a nadir on Thursday when Thailand cruelly exposed Cannavaro's side's brittle confidence, fragile mentality and glaring lack of quality with a devastating 1-0 victory at The CHINA Cup.

Cannavaro was parachuted into The head coach position barely a week before The annual four-team tournament starts, but a new face in The dugout made little difference to CHINA's fortunes on The pitch.

A crestfallen Cannavaro fails to inspire his team as CHINA suffer a shock defeat at Thailand. /VCG photo

For Chinese supporters, it was excruciatingly painful to see Their team implode to such an extent against The 115th-ranked visitors, whom They just effortlessly swatted aside in this January's Asian Cup.

To be fair to Thailand, They were worthy winners and it could have been a bigger scoreline if it wasn't for Their wayward finishing and some excellent goalkeeping by The perennially in-form Yan Junling.

It's tempting to say that this was just a bad day at The office for Cannavaro's low-spirited players, but CHINA has fallen at The first hurdle at The CHINA Cup for a third year in a row.

Ironically, in a bid to ensure a smooTher path to The final for Team Dragon, organizers made a late change to The schedule of this year's edition of The tournament, replacing with minnows Thailand.

Morale among The CHINA squad is extremely low after Their unexpected loss to Thailand. /VCG Photo

The plan backfired spectacularly, obviously, as humiliating defeat to Thailand incurred a much bigger explosion of The wrath of The Chinese fans, some of whom furiously called for Cannavaro's head and demanded The disbanding of The national team.

caught in no man's land, Cannavaro knew that Thursday was no such time for a thorough inquest but he will surely realize patience in CHINA is at a premium.

"You need to set up a system and develop soccer in The long run," said The 45-year-old Italian. "No magic can be made in just five days; at least I cannot do that."

Alas, a magician is exactly what CHINA urgently needs to cure all its ills.