China, the world's most populous nation, capped the most significant year in its sporting history on Sunday when the national soccer team reached the World Cup finals for the first time.

Three months after China won the right to stage their first Olympics in 2008, a 1-0 defeat of Oman in an Asian qualifier in the industrial city of Shenyang set off wild celebrations.

Hundreds of thousands of Beijing citizens swarmed to Tiananmen Square to celebrate in a burst of patriotic fervour similar to that in July when the International Olympic Committee voted to hand the Olympics to the Chinese capital.

The result, together with the qualification of the United States after a 2-1 defeat of Jamaica, provided a huge boost to the commercial viability of the finals in Japan and South Korea.

A country of 1.2 billion people, one sixth of the world's population, will now turn on their television sets to watch the national team playing the world's most popular sport.

With Russia joining England, Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Denmark in the finals after qualifying games on Saturday, the event has guaranteed interest among billions of people from Beijing to Boston and Moscow to Milan.

A nervous Chinese display and cold drizzle did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of 60,000 fans who packed the stadium in Shenyang, many sporting red headbands and painted faces, and banging drums.

The single goal in the 37th minute by midfielder Yu Genwei, replacing the suspended Qi Hong, was enough to break a World Cup jinx going all the way back to 1957, when China first entered the premier soccer competition.

China have now secured top spot in Asian Zone group B with two games to spare, which means automatic qualification.

AMERICAN BOOST

Soccer has yet to gain a firm place in the competitive US sports market, but the 2-1 defeat of Jamaica in a CONCACAF region qualifier in Foxboro, Massachusetts, provided a huge boost to the game in North America.

The result ended Jamaica's hopes of reaching the finals. They played at the finals for the first time in 1998.

The US are now certain of grabbing one of the top three spots in the group, which secure qualification for the finals, after Honduras surprisingly lost 1-0 at home to Trinidad and Costa Rica drew 0-0 with Mexico.

Trinidad had previously gained just one point from their eight games in the group.

Costa Rica are top with 20 points ahead of the US in second with 16. Honduras and Mexico both have 14 points.

Since Honduras and Mexico play each other in the last round of matches next month, only one of the two teams can overtake the US.

The US sealed victory and a place in their seventh finals with two goals from Joe-Max Moore in the fourth and 81st minutes. His second strike came from the penalty spot. Jamaica replied with a 14th minute goal from James Lawrence.

At the other end of the scale to China, tiny Liechtenstein finished their World Cup campaign with a 5-0 defeat by Bosnia in European group seven.

They lost all of their eight games, failing to score and conceding 23 goals.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/08/2001)