Japan leads with 2 wins, China 4th with 2 ties

World Cup winners Japan claimed their second straight win and Asian Cup holders Australia opened to move up on standings after trouncing Thailand 5-1, while hosts China's hope to qualify for the London Games went dim with another goalless draw here on Saturday at the round-robin tournament. With six women's national team gathered here to vie for just two tickets to the London Olympics through a round-robin competing system, Japan, who denied a home triumph for Germany last July to be crowned as the first ever Asian winners for World Cup, again showed their teeth against South Korea, led 2-1 before break and held it to the end. Midfielder Sakaguchi Mizuho opened the scoring for Janpan with a header only 10 minutes into the game, before the South Korean responded with Ji So Yun's goal 20 minutes later. Both teams had plenty chances to score after the equalizer, but both missed most of them, until Japan took the lead again just before the break whistler with a distant shoot from Ohno Shinobu. On the same time at the other stadium in Jinan, China tested their new attacking partnership of regular starter Xu Yuan and long missed veteran striker Han Duan. The hosts, however, did not seem to get any better against the youngster-packed DPR Korea in making chances than that of their last 0-0 tie with South Korea on Thursday. The most attended game of the day ended up in 0-0 after Xu wasted her best chance in the 12th minute and their DPRK opponents seemed determined to force a tie. Earlier on Saturday afternoon, Australia, who lifted the Asian Cup trophy last year in Chengdu with a penalty shootout vicytory over DPR Korea after tying scoreless in 120 minutes, took enough goal advantage with a 5-1 victory over preliminary round qualifiers Thailand. Till then, Japan lead the standings on six points after winning as many matches, DPR Korea trailed with four points from a 1-0 nip and a 0-0 draw, just one point ahead of Australia, and China were down to the fourth while South Korea fifth on just one point and Thailand the last on zero.