China and UAE clash ends all square

Dubai: China and the UAE played to a goalless draw, while Hamburg raced away to a lackluster 2-1 win against Vasco Da Gama on the opening day of the Dubai Football Challenge at the Al Nasr Club stadium on Thursday night.

The result puts defending champions Hamburg in pole position for the title as they sit pretty with maximum points in the four-team competition.

The winner will be decided after tomorrow's games when Vasco Da Gama will play the hosts after Hamburg face China in the earlier match.
The match never rose to great heights with the UAE doing well to keep a close tab on the swift-moving Chinese.

Most of the scoring chances for the home side came in the second half, but first, Faisal Khalil and then Nawaf Mubarak failed to get past Zhenyu Song on the Chinese goal.

Khalil could have given the UAE the lead when the second half was 27 minutes old, but the Al Ahli striker found his stiff grounder go harmlessly past the upright.

Eight minutes from the end, Mubarak accepted a ball from Khalil and placed wide with only Song at his mercy.

With just one striker upfront, China found it difficult to get past an alert UAE defence line.

Meanwhile, in an earlier match, Hamburg earned full points with a 2-1 win against Brazil's Vasco Da Gama.

All three goals were scored by Hamburg, with defender Joris Mathijsen placing one past his own goalkeeper to cancel out the lead given to the Germans by David Jarolim.

Nigel de Jong scored the match-winner in the 69th minute to give the Germans maximum points and put them into pole position in defending their title here.

Hamburg was the dominant side and if one thought that Vasco Da Gama would come to terms with their tentative approach as the match progressed, they were sadly mistaken.

There was none of the flair that is normally associated with Brazilian football as they took their time to settle down. They should consider themselves lucky as Hamburg came close to scoring on two clear occasions in the first five minutes itself.

The early period of total dominance from the Germans was indicative of what was to follow. After holding possession for the opening two minutes, it was Jerome Boateng earning his side the first corner of the match when he forced Vasco goalkeeper Roberto Netto to parry away.

And then on the fifth minute, Jarolim shot out with only Netto to beat inside the area.

Two minutes later, skipper Rafael van der Vaart forced Netto into making another save from a long-ranger as Vasco tried their best to contain the German attacks.

Vasco came close off a swift counter in the tenth minute, but goalkeeper Frank Rost flung himself at the feet of Wagner de Araujo who had moved in cleverly on the right flank.

Jarolim deservedly opened the score for the Germans when he received a ball from his captain, coolly chested it and placed past Netto in the 28th minute.

Two minutes later, Piotr Trochowski could have doubled the lead when he shot a wee bit wide off the goal after accepting a lovely through ball from Romeo Castelen.

The Vasco equaliser came in the 32nd minute under weird circumstances when Hamburg defender Mathijsen tapped past an advancing Rost for a self goal.

Hamburg found their second in the 69th minute when de Jong got on the end of a free kick from Van Der Vaart.