Even though China's soccer team missed the cut and the chance to play in the World Cup being held in Germany, there is no lack of the China element.

The Chinese American striker, four Chinese ball boys, cultural star Lang Lang will make up for the absence of the Chinese team on the World Cup stage in Germany.

China's music prodigy,as well as young pianist, Lang Lang (2nd Left) plays piano during World Cup countdown concert in Munich June 6,2006 to celebrate up-coming soccer World Cup tournament from June 9 to July 9 in Germany.[Xinhua]

FIFA Chairman Joseph Blatter recently issued a letter to the Abbot Shi Yongxin of Shaolin Temple in Henan's Song Mountain, inviting him to arrive in Germany's Berlin before July 9th to watch the World Cup finals.

The aforementioned China elements may yet shine brightly in Germany's World Cup. However, when one gets down to the basics, these Chinese elements are only playing the roles of sidekicks in the current World Cup competition.

To raise the China elements to become leading actors in World Cup matches, one must inevitably look to professionals in China's soccer circles.

During the World Cup, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) will send six observation delegations comprising of more than 150 people to Germany to watch the games. The purpose of these trips to Germany cannot be clearer ¨C to learn.

China's media is spending a fortune to send a large number of reporters to Germany to cover the World Cup, and this contingent has already struck up Wagner's Das Rheingold and filed diaries of hot-off-the-press visits to soccer camps and allow their fellow countrymen to sniff the keg of powder that would soon light up the titanic battles of the World Cup.

In the following one month, about five hundred front-line special-assignment reporters will serve up a rich menu of soccer news for fans who stay at home.

Some Chinese soccer diehards are not satisfied with watching World Cup matches in front of the TV. According to conservative estimates by travel industry insiders, at least four thousand Chinese fans would trek to Germany to watch the games.

The four pillars of Chinese soccer -CFA, media, fans, players ¨C formed invisible Chinese "eyes" outside the World Cup stadiums.

The existence of these Chinese "eyes" not only testifies to the growing pains of Chinese soccer in its formative years, but also shores up energy for China's national team to attempt a breakout four years later in South Africa's World Cup.