Two World Cup Qualifiers Defeated at HK Socer Tournament

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Two World Cup Qualifiers Defeated at HK Socer Tournament

China and Slovenia, both qualified for the World Cup finals, were defeated by the Hong Kong league team and Honduras on Tuesday at Chinese New Year Cup here.

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China and Slovenia Defeated at HK Socer Tournament

China and Slovenia, both qualified for the World Cup finals, were defeated by the Hong Kong league team and Honduras on Tuesday at Chinese New Year Cup here.

Amado Guevara and Cristian Martinez added two more goals following Saul Martinez's hat tricks to help Honduras cruising into final on Friday.

In another semi-final, The Hong Kong league team beat China 5-4 on penalty shoot-out. Goal keeper Chun Yip Fan of Hong Kong made a great save and disappointed China who had been looking forward to play Honduras in a hope that the play would give Chinese players a chance to get familiar with South American style.

The two winners will face each other on Friday in the final while the both losers will meet for the third place the same day.

China qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time under the guide of Wonder Coach Bora Milutinowich from Yugoslavia and was drawn into group C together with Brazil, Turkey, and Costa Rica. Milutinowich considered Honduras shared many similarity with Costa Rica in its style of play.

Milutinowich gave up his Hong Kong trip and has been hospitalized in Beijing after suffering a pneumonia. The Chinese team is currently under the coach of Shen Xiangfu, who blamed his players after losing the match.

"My players were not patient enough in offenses," Shen told a press conference. "They did not do what they were told to do before the match."

"We won because my players were confident to win. We have never lost recent penalty shoot-outs during the last several matches no matter who our opponents were", said Tsang Wai Chung, coach of the Hong Kong league team.

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