Both China and Japan Olympic teams failed to take their steps further towards the trophy as the leaders on the table ended up their encounter in a goalless draw here on Friday and the day two competitions at the Shenyang Four-nation tournament went rude on and off the pitch.

Ratomir Dujkovic ate his words as he failed to lead the Chinese side for a revenge on Japan, while North Korea suffered their second loss on a 1-0 nip by Botswana earlier on the day.

China's head coach Dujkovic had promised to win "twice" over Japan, since his team 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 the Serb took full charge of the Chinese side.

Ratomir Dujkovic

The hosts, which beat Botswana 2-0 on Wednesday, opened Friday's game with fine attacking as Zhao Xuri, a senior team member, forced a corner for China in the very first minute into the match, but skipper Chen Tao made a lowclass mistake to directly kick the corner out.

With all three Chinese internationals Zhou Haibin, Zhao Xuri and Mao Jianqing starting the match, China's midfield 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 score denied by Japanese goalie Shusaku Nishikawa and the Shanghai winger's pass was kicked wide by his front partner Zhu Ting at 36.

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 DPRK, with six positions changed though on the same 3-5-2 formation.

The East Asian powerhouse, regarded 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 42nd 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, China and Japan, however, still lead the standings of the round-robin event with four points from one win and a draw each, but the latter trailed as the second due to goal differences.

Botswana, who took a 1-0 edge over North Korea earlier on Friday, sit the third over the win-less North Korea, after Kaone Molefe tapped in a one-touch throw from the front right line to beat an unprepared North Korea goalie Ri Myong Guk in the 18th minute.

The four-nation tourney, functioning as a warming-up event for next year's Beijing Olympic Games, will play the final round on Sunday when China meet North Korea and the other match pit Japan against Botswana.

All the three visiting teams have not yet ensure berths to the 2008 Games, as Japan and North Korea will make the final stage in Asian Zone qualification later this year and Botswana was drawn into Group C with Sydney Olympic champions Cameroon, Guinea and Morocco at the African Zone's 12-strong competitions.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2007)