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
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
RSS