Both China and Japan Olympic teams failed to take their steps
further towards the trophy as the leaders on the table ended up
their encounter in a goalless draw here on Friday and the day two
competitions at the Shenyang Four-nation tournament went rude on
and off the pitch.
Ratomir Dujkovic ate his words as he failed to lead the Chinese
side for a revenge on Japan, while North Korea suffered their
second loss on a 1-0 nip by Botswana earlier on the day.
China's head coach Dujkovic had promised to win "twice" over
Japan, since his team had lost twice 2-0 to the Japanese Olympic
team last year, with former soul players Feng Xiaoting and Hao
Junmin both on the pitch at that time, before the Serb took full
charge of the Chinese side.
Ratomir Dujkovic
The hosts, which beat Botswana 2-0 on Wednesday, opened Friday's
game with fine attacking as Zhao Xuri, a senior team member, forced
a corner for China in the very first minute into the match, but
skipper Chen Tao made a lowclass mistake to directly kick the
corner out.
With all three Chinese internationals Zhou Haibin, Zhao Xuri and
Mao Jianqing starting the match, China's midfield did not show its
real power in organizing, granting some midfield control to the
visiting side.
But it's still the hosts which created more scoring
opportunities in the first half, as Shen Longyuan's solo run on 33
minutes ended up a weak score denied by Japanese goalie Shusaku
Nishikawa and the Shanghai winger's pass was kicked wide by his
front partner Zhu Ting at 36.
Japan, who did not field its midfield "engine" Tsukasa Umesaki
until halfway into the second half, made a quite different starting
eleven with that of them in Wednesday's event opener against DPRK,
with six positions changed though on the same 3-5-2 formation.
The East Asian powerhouse, regarded the worst Olympic squad of
Japan in a decade which missing most of their regular starters
here, wasted their best chance before the break.
In the 42nd minute, winger Hiroyuki Taniguchi received a cross
from South Korea-born Lee Tadanari to hardly beat Chinese keeper
Liu Zhenli, who blocked it with a loose hand but did not allow in a
second shoot from Minoru Suganuma.
With the goalless tie, China and Japan, however, still lead the
standings of the round-robin event with four points from one win
and a draw each, but the latter trailed as the second due to goal
differences.
Botswana, who took a 1-0 edge over North Korea earlier on
Friday, sit the third over the win-less North Korea, after Kaone
Molefe tapped in a one-touch throw from the front right line to
beat an unprepared North Korea goalie Ri Myong Guk in the 18th
minute.
The four-nation tourney, functioning as a warming-up event for
next year's Beijing Olympic Games, will play the final round on
Sunday when China meet North Korea and the other match pit Japan
against Botswana.
All the three visiting teams have not yet ensure berths to the
2008 Games, as Japan and North Korea will make the final stage in
Asian Zone qualification later this year and Botswana was drawn
into Group C with Sydney Olympic champions Cameroon, Guinea and
Morocco at the African Zone's 12-strong competitions.
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2007)
