Chinese women beaten in 23rd Universiade football final
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-21 10:00

IZMIR, TURKEY, August 20 -- China were beaten by Brazil 2-1 in the final of the women's football competitions, missing their best chance to clinch their first international championship at the 23rd World Universiade here on Saturday.

Brazilian striker Da Rocha Dayane opened the scoring in the 21st minute by dancing past a Chinese defender and slamming the ball into the net.

China exploited their chance from a free kick when defender Jiang Shai equalized with a header through a wonder curve pass off captain Song Xiaoli in the 55th minute. The two teams then failed several attempts to rewrite the scoreboard and the match seemed to be dragged into the penalty shoot-out.

However, Brazilian midfielder Demonder Gabriela's goal giving Brazil another title when she found the net in a scramble on 90th minute in the absence of Chinese defenders' focus.

Brazilian women laughed in rejoice while Chinese women cried for the failure when the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game.

"I'm very satisfied with the players' performance and proud of the team spirit despite the defeat", Chinese coach Gao Rongming said after the match.

He said Brazil were superior to China in techniques, ball control and attack organization, but China had also played their utmost to achieve the result.

"We lost the game, but win the honor", Gao said.

In the men's football match, Japan defended their title by beating Italy 3-2 in penalty shootouts after a 3-3 tie from the regular and overtime.