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Early matches kick off Asiad

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The opening round of soccer matches started to warm up Guangzhou, the host city of the 16th Asian Games, on Sunday, with six group matches kicking off.

Defending champion Qatar opened with a surprise 0-0 draw against Singapore, while all the other strong sides easily won in their opening matches.

Facing the defending gold medalist, Singapore played a compact, defensive game as goalkeeper Mohamad Izwan Mahbud put on a man-of-the-match performance.

"I'm delighted with the result today. The goalkeeper gave great performance and made a lot of good saves," Singapore head coach Sundram Moorthy said.

Qatar coach Co Adriaanse, however, was not as impressed.

"I think it was a strange game because Singapore, they didn't want to play football. They want to keep the ball for a lot of time," he said.

"In the second half, we created five or six opportunities to score, but we didn't. That's our own fault."

In other matches, Uzbekistan, champion of the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, thrashed Bangladesh 3-0 in the Group E opener, while Kuwait beat India 2-0 in Group D. In Group F, Thailand routed Pakistan 6-0 and Oman defeated Maldives 3-0.

The second day of play promises to be a tense one. Host team China faces Japan at Tianhe Stadium on Monday.

China earned its best result in the tournament by winning the silver medal at the 1994 Asian Games, but it has failed to reach the quarterfinals in the past two editions and hopes to break that dry spell on home soil despite some players suffering from poor form in the domestic league.

Japan has its own problems, though, with a number of top Under-23 players remaining with their clubs in the J-League.

Another Monday duel will pit the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at Yuexiu Stadium.

The ROK is led by several national team players, highlighted by Monaco striker Park Chu-young, and head coach Hong Myong-bo did not hide his ambition.

"Our target is to win the gold medal," Hong said, "We have not won the gold since 1986."

The DPRK, meanwhile, features nine players from its World Cup squad in South Africa.

In other matches, four-time champion Iran faces Turkmenistan and Bahrain plays Vietnam.