An own-goal by China’s Feng Xiaoting sparked a late glut of goals for World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay, as the South Americans dispatched China 4-0 in the driving rain in Wuhan on Tuesday night.
Uruguay striker Luis Suarez forced Feng into scoring the own-goal — initially thought by Chinese commentators to be a goal by Suarez himself — to begin the rout after a goalless first 70 minutes on a sloppy rain-soaked pitch.
Once the taps opened, a dispirited China side could do nothing to stop the powerful South Americans, with Edinson Cavani blasting a rocket beyond China goalkeeper Zeng Cheng from 30m out nine minutes later.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Uruguay continued their late onslaught with substitute Cristian Rodriguez hooking in a right-footed shot from outside the box moments later, while Sebastian Fernandez rounded off the scoring in the 85th minute.
Despite the relentless rain, the visitors attacked throughout the first half, but were unable to finish off their opportunities as the two sides went into the break scoreless.
The loss was a disappointment for China coach Gao Hongbo after his side dispatched Syria last week 2-1 and drew with World Cup quarter-finalists Paraguay 1-1 last month. Uruguay drubbed Indonesia 7-1 in Jakarta on Friday as part of their Asian tour.
China, where soccer has been blighted by a huge corruption scandal, are preparing for next year’s Asian Cup, hoping to rebound from a string of international disappointments, including failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Under Gao’s leadership, the side has had a run of good results and are now 82nd in the FIFA rankings — a significant improvement from their lowly position of 108th in May last year when Gao took the helm.
MEXICO 2, VENEZUELA 2
AP, CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
Mexico were held to a 2-2 draw at home by 10-man Venezuela in a friendly on Tuesday.
Venezula took the lead in the sixth minute through Juan Arango, but the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Gabriel Chichero was dismissed for a hard tackle on Mexico defender Ivan Estrada after just 25 minutes. Mexico had a man sent off in second-half stoppage-time.
Mexico striker Javier Hernandez equalized in the 34th minute, but Arango scored his second goal in the 40th minute to restore Venezuela’s lead.
Giovani dos Santos scored in the 61st minute to make it 2-2, but the Mexicans could not find a winner against their lower-ranked opponents.
The match was played just hours after Nestor de la Torre resigned from his high-ranking post with the Mexico Football Federation. The No. 3 in the federation stepped down a month after he handed down fines and suspensions to 13 players involved in a late-night party following a friendly match against Colombia.
Eleven of the players who were fined offered a statement after the match. Two others who were suspended for six months — Carlos Vela of Arsenal and Efrain Juarez of Celtic — were not called up for the match.
In a statement the players said they had not asked for de la Torre’s resignation as a condition for dropping a threat to boycott national team games.
“We want to clarify that we did not ask for anyone’s job,” the statement said.
US 0, COLOMBIA 0
AFP, CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA
Colombia and the US played out a goalless draw in an international friendly on Tuesday, the South Americans moving to 9-3-3 in their all-time rivalry with the US.
The US went with a mostly European-based squad, but gave Dallas midfielder Brek Shea of Major League Soccer his first cap and a start in place of fellow Texan Clint Dempsey, who replaced Shea for the second half.
US coach Bob Bradley, taking his first strong look at players ahead of next June’s Gold Cup showdown of North American foes, saw improvement by his players in the second half.
“In the first half, we were slow moving the ball,” Bradley said. “The flow was better in the second half. The passes were better and took us somewhere. What we want to do is keep trying to build our pool, get our guys some experience and come next year, narrow in on the guys we think can really help us for the Gold Cup.”
US defender Oguchi Onyewu was the US captain in the first half, while his AC Milan teammate Mario Yepes served as the Colombia captain.
ECUADOR 2, POLAND 2
AFP, MONTREAL
Defender Michal Zewlakow set a Poland record with his 101st cap on Tuesday as the Europeans played Ecuador to a 2-2 draw in an international friendly staged in Canada.
The 34-year-old veteran surpassed the former national mark for appearances set by Grzegorz Lato.
“I’m very happy, but I considered the match just an ordinary match with our national team,” Zewlakow said.
Cristian Benitez gave Ecuador the lead in the 32nd minute, but Poland, coming off a 2-2 draw with the US on Saturday in Chicago, answered with goals by Euzebiusz Smolarek in the 60th minute and Ludovic Obraniak in the 70th minute.
However, Benitez struck again in the 78th minute for the equalizer.
Tuesday’s other friendly results:
‧ Taiwan 1, Hong Kong 1
‧ Bahrain 2, Uzbekistan 4
‧ Costa Rica 2, El Salvador 1
‧ Croatia 2, Norway 1
‧ Honduras 2, Guatemala 0
‧ Indonesia 3, Maldives 0
‧ Kuwait 3, Vietnam 1
‧ Oman 0, Chile 1
‧ Panama 1, Peru 0
‧ Philippines 5, Macau 0
‧ Qatar 1, Iraq 2
‧ Saudi Arabia 0, Bulgaria 2
‧ UAE 0, Angola 2
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