China Hold up Japan in Kobe

The visiting Chinese National Soccer team silenced Japanese fans by managing a goal-less draw with an effort on Wednesday in the Sino-Japanese Soccer Friendly at Kobe, China Daily reports on March 16.

Thanks to several courageous saves from goalie Jiang Jin, Chinese held up the Japanese who embarked numerous scoring attempts during the one-sided 90 minutes.

Japan fielded three recalled from the European field, Hidetoshi Nakata (AS Roma), Hiroshi Nanami (Venezia) and Shoji Jo (Real Valladolid) and kept pressure on China's goalie in most of the match, but was unable to find the decisive strike to change the scoreboard.

Anyway, the Chinese team saved blushes for their debuting new coach Serb Bora Milutinovic who resumed the post two weeks ago.

The draw was perhaps fitting, given the two teams share identical records against each other -- seven wins, seven defeats and three draws.

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