Hosts China were forced to a 0-0 tie by arch-rivals Japan at the four-nation tournament here Friday night.
Ratomir Djukovic ate his words, failing to lead the Chinese Olympic team for a revenge match, as the Serb had promised to win "twice" over Japan before the match kicked off at 2000 local time.
China 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 Djukovic took full charge of the Chinese side.
The hosts, which beat Botswana 2-0 on Wednesday and now lead the standings of the round-robin event with four points from one win and a draw, opened Friday's game with fine attackings.
In the very first minute into the match, Zhao Xuri, who joined the Olympic team after returning from a disappointing campaign of the senior national team in the just concluded Asian Games, forced a corner for China, but Chinese skipper Chen Tao made a lowclass mistake to directly kick the corner out.
With all three Chinese internationals of the Olympic team, Zhou Haibin, Zhao Xuri and Mao Jianqing, starting the match, China's midfield, however, 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 shoot denied by Japanese goalie Shusaku Nishikawa and the Shanghai winger's pass was kicked wide by his front partner Zhu Ting at 36.
Wan Houliang's header narrowly missed the target after the defender was picked inside the box by a corner unleashed by skipper Chen Tao in the 34 minute, and Zhu Ting was denied in the stoppage of the first half after an almost perfect solo run.
After the break, Jiang Ning's drive on 46 minutes kissed the post before Mao Jianqing kicked wide five minutes later.
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 DPR Korea, with six positions changed though on the same 3-5-2 formation.
The East Asian powerhouse, regarded as 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 42 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, Japan also piled up four points but trailing the hosts on standings due to goal differences.
Source: Xinhua
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