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China's Women's Football Team Routs Guatemala 14-0
China's women's football team, shootout losers to the United States at last year's Women's World Cup, took their first step towords a rematch by crushing Guatemala 14-0 on Saturday.
China and the United States are favoured to meet in the inaugural Women's Gold Cup Final on July 3. The Americans opened by routing Trinidad and Tobago 11-0 on Friday.
Zhang Ouying scored four goals and assisted on four others while Shui Qingxia added three goals for China, which outshot Guatemala 45-1.
"The opposition was not very strong, but we were playing our utmost to make it an interesting game," Chinese captain Liu Ailing said.
Chinese goaltender Gao Hong's lone save came off Claudia Galvez in the 24th minute.
"We knew we were playing one of the top teams in the world," Guatemala coach Graco Lopez said. "The game was a learning experience."
In the second match of round-robin play, Charmaine Hooper scored in the 87th minute to lift Canada over Mexico 4-3. Hooper returned after a long absence due to stress fractures in both legs.
After upsetting China two weeks ago at the Pacific Cup in Australia, Canadian coach Even Pellerud had hoped for more from his squad, which faces a rematch with the Chinese on Monday in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
"It's a big disappointment," he said. "We hoped we would take one step forward. We took two steps back."
Mexico faces Guatemala in Hershey today, Beijing time.
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