China beats Canada in women's four-nation soccer

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, January 31, 2004

China beats Canada in women's four-nation soccer

China scored a 2-1 win over Canada while the United States beat Sweden 3-0 in the openers of the Four-Nation women's soccer tournament here on Friday.

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China scored a 2-1 win over Canada while the United States beat Sweden 3-0 in the openers of the Four-Nation women's soccer tournament here on Friday.

Bai Lili opened the accout for China in the 20th minute before Teng Wei added to 2-0 just after halftime, while Veronique Maranda scored Canada's lone goal minutes before the final whistle.

"We have prepared better than the Canadians, and the score justified our efforts," said Zhang Haitao, the newly-appointed head coach of the Chinese women's national team, who was stopped by Canada in the quarterfinals at the 2003 Women's World Cup.

Later on, Lindsay Tarpley scored a pair of second-half goals tolead the United States for another convincing win over Sweden, after Shannon Boxx opened the scoring in the 15th minute.

The Swedish women, runners-up to Germany at the World Cup, staged their hard fight but failed to revenge their first-round loss to the United States in the World Cup.

While the US side is without star forward Mia Hamm and defenderBrandi Chastain, who are expected to return to the team for Olympic qualifiers starting on Feb. 25 in Costa Rica, China is also without its former captain Sun Wen, a former FIFA player of the year, who retired earlier.

However, the Chinese women dominated the game, forcing Canadiangoalkeeper Erin McLeod to block at least a dozen shots on goal andCanada managed only two shots, both in the second half.

The four teams are playing a round robin format in the tournament, a warm-up for the Summer Olympics in Athens.

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