Football: India's quarter-final
chances suffer a jolt

India crashed to their first defeat in the Asian Games football tournament when they lost to China 0-2 in a crucial Group C league match in Yangsan on Thursday.

The defeat, India's first in three games after wins over Bangladesh and Turkmenistan, also dealt a serious blow to their hopes of progressing to the next round, a feat last achieved in the 1982 Asiad in New Delhi.

In other matches of the day, Yemen beat Vietnam 2-0 while Thailand shocked UAE 3-1.

The win enabled China top Group C and book a place in the last eight while India will now have to see whether they can find a berth as the best second-placed team from among Groups B, C and D.

Coach Stephen Constantine's boys looked a pale shadow of the team that came back brilliantly to beat Turkmenistan. The wily Chinese also closely marked the two Indian strikers Baichung Bhutia and Abishek Yadav.

Just as in the earlier matches, the below par display in the first 45 minutes proved to be India's undoing and both the goals the conceded came during this period.

After taking a little while to settle down, China took the lead in the 16th minute when Yu Tyu converted a penalty.

Just as the match was heading towards half-time, India had a good chance to restore parity, with Bhutia finding S Venkatesh inside the rival box. But Venkatesh's powerful shot, angled towards the far post, was brilliantly saved by the Chinese 'keeper.

The counter attack which followed took the ball into the Indian area and the Indian defenders, anticipating the half-time whistle, were caught napping by Yu Tyu who hammered home China's second goal, giving no chance to Indian custodian Rajat Ghosh Dastidar.

The Indians appeared more purposeful in the first session and managed to keep the fancied Chinese on tenterhooks with some imaginative moves down the flanks. Howvere, it was the Chinese who drew first blood. The first goal came off a penalty and Tyu just placed the ball to the left of a diving Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar.

The penalty was awarded after defender Sameer Naiak tripped Tyu inside the box. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the dreaded spot, depsite mild protests from the Indians.

Despite trailing by a goal, the Indians played an attacking game and came close to the Chinese goalmouth on a few occasions but without much luck.

The nimble-footed Tyu consolidated the position for his team at the stroke of interval as he slammed in from close following a goalmouth melee giving no chance at all to custodian Ghosh Dasdidar.

The Chinese enjoyed territorial advanatge in the second session but could not increase their margin as the Indians, knowing the importance of losing by a narrow margin to keep alive their hopes of making the quarter-finals, tightened their defence and did reasoanly well to keep their rivals on a tight leash.

The Indians got a few gilt-edged opportunites during the contest but poor finishing prevented them from scoring the goal.

With star striker Baichung Bhutia tightly marked right through the game, the Indian forward line did not look very menacing as neither Bijen Singh nor Abhishek Yadav could penetrate the defence.

India coach Stephen Constantine, however, was satisfied with his team's performance.

"We played quite well and we could match them (China) in their game. The Chinese team is not so matured," he said.

Constanine, who took over the reins of the team recently to prepare for the Asian Games, said the penalty awarded by the Iranian referee in the 16th minute was not fair and the first goal which resulted from it gave China the advantage.

According to Constantine the turning point of the match was the second goal conceded by India during the first half injury time.

"Had we not conceded the second goal at the stroke of half-time we could have drawn or even won the match," he added.