Star midfielder Shao Jiayi had a late penalty saved as China drew 0-0 with Australia despite a furious second-half onslaught in Asian World Cup qualifying yesterday.
Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer dived low and to his left in the 88th minute to block Shao's shot as Australia escaped with a point to remain top of Group 1, the region's so-called "Group of Death."
Shao, 27, was distraught over the miss, offering to take the blame if China fail to reach the final qualifying round.
"I must apologize to the team and the fans for that penalty shot," Shao said. "Because of me we did not win the game, we should have won the game but we didn't because I missed the penalty kick. I really feel bad about this."
China coach Vladimir Petrovic refused to criticize Shao, but said his team would undergo extra penalty practice.
"I'm very satisfied with how well we played and how hard we fought, we played with a lot of confidence but unfortunately we were not [lucky enough] to win," the Serb said.
Australia were firm favorites, but they had only two days to acclimatize to Kunming's 1,900m altitude and were missing Everton's Tim Cahill and Celtic striker Scott McDonald among a host of players out injured.
Given the difficulties, Australia coach Pim Verbeek was happy with the result -- which maintained his unbeaten record and kept the Socceroos on course for South Africa 2010.
"We knew that this would be a difficult game, but our boys were well prepared," the Dutchman said. "The boys played very hard to get this result, of course we came here to win because everyone likes to win games. But I have to admit, I can live with this result."
After a quiet opening period, China came out firing for the second half and tested Schwarzer with striker Zhu Ting's header.
A minute later Shandong Luneng forward Han Peng fluffed a clear scoring chance, disappointing the 32,500 fans at Tuodong Stadium.
In the dying minutes, Middlesbrough's Schwarzer brought down Qu Bo in the box and was yellow-carded as his heroics appeared to have come to nought.
But Energie Cottbus midfielder Shao, under intense pressure to earn China's first win, shot tamely.
Australia's best chance had been a first-half Mark Bresciano volley, which was saved at full stretch by China's Zong Lei. Zhu could have had two in the opening period.
In other Asian qualifying games for the 2010 FIFA World Cup concluded at press time yesterday, it was:
GROUP B
At Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand 0, Oman 1
GROUP C
At Shanghai, China:
North Korea 0, South Korea 0
At Ashbagat, Turkmenistan:
Turkmenistan 0, Jordan 2
GROUP D
At Singapore:
Singapore 2, Lebanon 0
GROUP E
At Damascus, Syria
Syria 1, United Arab Emirates 1
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