SHANGHAI, May 31(AP) -- Expectations were high four years ago when China made its World Cup debut in what was heralded as the first of many finals appearances.

This time round China failed to even make through the group stage of qualifying. The closest the team will get to Germany 2006 is a friendly against France two days before the June 9 opener.

So what went wrong ?

"The biggest problem is not enough young players," Bora Milutinovic, who coached China at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, said in a telephone interview.

"They're a long way from competitive soccer," the Serb said.

When China qualified for the 2002 World Cup, it seemed to many observers to be another step in a natural progression toward the top ranks, even after the team bounced out in the group round without scoring a goal in three matches.

Whatever progress China was making, however, came to a screeching halt in Nov. 2004, when its qualifying campaign ended after losing to Kuwait on goal difference.

Yet China's problems involve much more than scoring goals.

China has struggled to expose its players to the game's most competitive level, overcoming the lack of strong soccer tradition and decades of communist isolation and heavy-handed government control.

Few Chinese players have foreign experience, while teams in the Chinese Super League _ the top flight domestic competition _ have been repeatedly distracted by chronic mismanagement and match fixing scandals.

Among many observers, however, the biggest lament is the national association's failure to implement a strong youth program to develop more homegrown talent. That's especially important because most of the heroes of the 2002 campaign, including former Everton midfielder Li Tie and talismanic striker Hao Haidong, are in the twilight of their careers.

"It's not like in the United States where so many people are playing," said Milutinovic, who has led more teams in the World Cup _ five _ than any other coach. "There should be a million people playing."

China's soccer woes place the country in an odd position given its prowess in other international sports, coming second in the medal tally at the 2004 Athens Olympics. China is gunning for the top spot when it hosts the 2008 Games in Beijing and is pushing its state-sponsored training program into overdrive.

Coaching changes haven't helped. Milutinovic left his post after the 2002 tournament, and his replacement, Dutch-born replacement Arie Haan, quit following elimination for 2006. Veteran club coach Zhu Guanghu was tasked with picking up the pieces, but success has remained elusive.

China gets its next change to test its progress in friendlies against Switzerland on June 3 and France on June 7.

Soccer remains an enormously popular spectator sport in China, and predictably, the World Cup is dominating sports pages and driving a market for jerseys and most any other product associated with the tournament.

But if Chinese fans are feeling a little left out, the soccer association says it can't blame them.

"I know lots of fans are feeling bad when they are reading World Cup news irrelevant to China," national soccer association vice president Zhang Jilong recently told reporters.

Still, many fans are far from giving up.

"China's soccer is still moving forward," said part-time student Ma Zhongping, playing kickabout with a group of friends outside Shanghai's massive downtown stadium. "We've come so far in a short time in investment, in numbers of professional players, in leagues and tournaments."

And, Ma is quick to point out, China's soccer woes are hardly unique.

"Even countries with hundreds of years of soccer tradition like Germany, England and Italy have had problems with gambling and corruption," Ma added.