Titan front page: World Cup, Nadal win and Phelps' bong hits
Tuesday, 3rd February 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Titan Sports newspaper returned to production Monday after taking a break during the Chinese New Year holiday. Page one of its first issue of the year of the ox had three stories: news that the Chinese Football Association will not bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups; Nadal's Australian Open win; and the Michael Phelps bong hit photo story.
Titan Sports is China's leading sports newspaper, putting out issues every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is published jointly by Hunan Art and Culture Publishing House and Titan Publishing House (Danwei).
Tags: CFA, football, Michael Phelps, Rafael Nadal, soccer, swimming, tennis, Titan front page, Titan sports, World Cup
Game Over
Monday, 16th June 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Sun Xiang (l) and Nashat Ali battle for the ball.
The team's 2-1 loss to Iraq Saturday put the last nail in the coffin. Even a win over division leader Australia June 22 can't help now.
China began this round of qualifying games in March against Australia in Kunming. While the Aussies arrived just a few days before the game and the Chinese team trained for more than a month at Kunming's 1,900-meter altitude, the game ended with China missing a penalty kick and settling for a a 0-0 tie.
The next game, against Qatar, was played in Tianjin, just one hour from Beijing. China suffered a 1-0 loss on a penalty kick. With the team's backs against the wall on Saturday, fans' enthusiasm was pretty low, according to this Reuters report that says only 30,000 showed up to watch at the 60,000-seat Tianjin Olympic Stadium. China's Zhou Haibin scored first in the match, but then the team proceeded to give up two goals and and its World Cup hopes, also waving goodbye to an eight million yuan bonus that the China Football Association had pledged to the team if it qualified for South Africa 2010.
Not surprisingly, head coach Vladimir Petrovic is taking some heat from the media (the Olympic team is led by Ratomir Dujkovic). But history isn't exactly on his side: China missed the 2006 World Cup and was held scoreless in 2002, the first time it qualified for a World Cup.
Image: FIFA.com
Tags: football, soccer, Tianjin Olympic Stadium, Vladimir Petrovic, World Cup, Zhou Haibin
Missed Opportunities Jeopardize World Cup Hopes
Thursday, 27th March 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
After yesterday's 2:0 upset of Iraq by Qatar, Australia has four points and leads Asia's 'group of death', with China in third place behind Qatar with two points. China has four more matches left during the qualifying stage and still has a chance of qualifying.
Aside from maintaining Australia's leading position in its group, yesterday's draw was a moral victory for the Socceroos, who went into the match with five of their starters including Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill sitting out due to injuries. Australia was also concerned about the effects of Kunming's 1,900-meter altitude on both its players and the ball - Australia coach Pim Verbeek was critical of the choice of Kunming to host the match, saying his players had little time to adjust to the altitude and expressing concern about the possibility of 'floating balls'.
Ironically, it was China—which had been training in Kunming for weeks—that had problems with floating balls. In the second half China had several opportunities near the Australian goal that were wasted when passes sailed over the heads of open men.
With four goal attempts compared to Australia's one, China was increasing its pressure on the Australian goal, culminating in a penalty kick after goalkeeper Schwarzer was hit with a foul on Qu Bo (曲波) in the penalty area. The thunderous noise generated by the home crowd vanished when Schwarzer stopped Shao's kick with his feet, then pounced upon the ball. Shortly afterward, Australia's David Carney had an opportunity to win the match, but was unable to redirect Mark Bresciano's cross into the Chinese goal.
After the game, Shao apologized for missing the spot kick, which, had it made it past Schwarzer, would have likely given China a victory, putting it atop the group with four points.
Asia's 20 teams are divided into five groups, with the 10 winners and runners-up reaching the final group stage. Four teams will advance from the final group stage to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, with the two next-best teams playing for the chance to play the winner of the Oceania group for another berth.
"I truly feel it was regrettable, I'm sorry to everyone," Shao told Chinese media, "As it was, we totally had an opportunity to win this game, but the spot kick didn't go in… now all I can do is apologize to my teammates and the fans."
"You saw it today, we gave it our all," he continued, "You could say we had a definite advantage – during the game there were several opportunities, it's a pity we were unable to seize them."
This post was contributed by Chris Horton, reporting from Kunming.
Image: clzg.cn
Tags: Australia, football, Kunming, soccer, World Cup