China

China tops table of four-nation women's soccer tourney

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-02 08:41

China came out the only victorious team after the day one competitions of the four-nation International Women's Soccer Invitational Tournament 2007 on Sunday, beating Thailand 3-0 to temporarily rise on top of the table.

Italy and Mexico ended up the tournament opener with a 2-2 draw earlier on the day.

China proved themselves too strong for the Thais despite missing their big name, as teenage sensation Ma Xiaoxu, in the attacking lineup. Ma has yet been back home from Swedish women's soccer league.

The hosts opened their scoring in the 42nd minute with a super long drive from Bi Yan. The Dalian Shide's established midfielder shot from 25 meters away on a precise backward pass from teenage forward Guo Yue outside the penalty box.

China's Swedish head coach Lyfors Domanski made her first change as early as the 41st minute, substituting veteran midfielder Qu Feifei with the 17-year-old Xie Caixia, just one minute before Bi scored for the hosting side.

Veteran striker Han Duan made it 2-0 just three minutes into the second half, netting an unhurried score inside the rivals' box. Another three minutes later, Li Jie scored the third for China with a corner kick.

It was far from the end of China's scoring show as Han Duan collected her double with 13 minutes left on the clock following substitute Xie Caixia's long-range drive from right wing outside the penalty box.

Thailand, who had been trounced 7-0 by China with Han Duan's hat-trick play in last year's Doha Asian Games, were pressed inside their own half and made only two shots in the first half against 11 from China.

The Thais missed their best chance to earn a score in the 25th minute when China failed to organize their defending line in time, but none of Thailand's strikers emerged to give a fine shot.

In the tourney's opener earlier on the day, Mexico wasted a 2-0 lead in the opening minutes and had to settle for a 2-2 tie after committing an own goal to the more established Italy.

Mexican defender Marlene Sandoval tipped the ball into their own net while blocking a shot at the goalmouth on 71 minutes, before Panico Patrizia scored the 84-minute goal for Italy to level the score.

After a sluggish start when Italy took nearly 80 percent of the ball possession, Mexico's full back Soto Luz Del Rosario Saucedo broke the deadlock with a reflected head-in in the 8th minute after midfielder Luna Evelyn Lopez set the ball from inside the box while Italian defenders failed to follow Saucedo's paces.

Just seven minutes later, Samtos Arelli Martinez headed in a second for Mexico with a spot-kick also from Lopez.

The Italian side pushed forward hardly after trailing 2-0 but did not impress until Sandoval's own goal. They might have regretted to talk tall too early as coach Pietro Ghedin looked down on Mexico and saying it by no means a strong rival at their last training session early on Sunday.

China will next play Mexico and Italy takes on Thailand on Wednesday when the event moves to Shenyang, a Northeast China city which will also host parts of the Beijing Olympic soccer matches as Qinhuangdao.

The four-nation tourney, acting as this year's first venue-testing event for 2008 Olympic Games, is slated from July 1 to 10 and co-hosted by Qinhuangdao and Shenyang.

Before the first round matches on Sunday, downpour washed Qinhuangdao for two days, but no complaints were heard from the participating teams and all the four coaches gave their thumbs up for the pitch of the Olympic Sports Center Stadium, saying that they didn't feel anything uncomfortable about it.