With a late penalty from Tao Wei, China's national football team
struggled to a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Bundesliga side Arminia
Bielefeld Sunday in their first warm-up for the upcoming European
tour.
Chinese player Zhao Junzhe
(L) passes a volley to teammates ahead of the rival's block on
Sunday, Jan 14, 2007.
Chinese head coach Zhu Guanghu put rookies in the starting
lineup, while Sun Xiang, who just sealed a transfer deal with Dutch
powerhouse PSV Eindhoven, was sidelined in the game, transformed
into a trilogy to test the newbies.
The Chinese dropped their traditional offensive style featuring
simple and fruitless long passes from both wings and instead posed
threats to their rivals' goal by managing breakthroughs via ground
passes.
The change helped Zhu's side take command in the opening minutes
despite no goals made. But the situation turned adverse in the 15th
minute when Bielefeld found the net.
The Germans followed to maintain the lead until the third period
when the Chinese played all-out in the hunt for an equalizer. The
Chinese turned their efforts into a penalty in the 70th minute as
Bielefeld's defender committed a handball foul in the box.
Substitute Tao Wei used the chance to level the score for
China.
(CRI January 15, 2007)
