Chen overcomes ankle injury to lift China over Finland in men's goalball quarters
12/9/2008 17:30
Chen Liangliang overcame an ankle injury to score five times in Beijing
today at the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) Gymnasium and lift China over
Finland 7-6 in the men's goalball quarter-finals of the Beijing Paralympic
Games.
"I thought we might lose when we fell behind, but our mentality was
strong enough that we could finally rally past our opponent and win through,"
said Chen, who had received block therapy before taking to the court.
With
China trailing 4-2 at the half time, Chen scored his third goal of the game soon
after the game resumed to cut it to 4-3 before denying a penalty shot of Finland
with a fantastic block.
Then China reeled off four goals in two minutes for a
7-4 lead. Finland scored twice in the last two minutes to pull within 7-6, but
that's the furthest the Finns could go.
"Actually I am not so satisfied with
my overall performance," Chen said. "Although I scored five times, I also
conceded three."
Having scored 12 goals in the first two rounds of the
preliminaries, Chen injured his ankle in China's third match against Canada on
Tuesday before watching the rest of the round robin play on the bench.
"After
two days of rest, it is hard for me to find back my touch of the ball," Chen
added. "And I was affected by the ankle injury in defense."
A gold medal
winner at the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled (FESPIC) Games
in 2006, Chen is dreaming of winning his first Paralympic medal on home
soil.
"My ankle hurts a lot, but I will just try my best," he said.
"Hopefully I can play in the semifinals tomorrow, I really want to fight with my
teammates."
Earlier today, the United States pulled off the major upset in
the quarterfinals, beating previously unbeaten Slovenia 4-2.
"Slovenia is a
great team, but we won. We have confidence in ourselves and our team," said
Chris Dodds of the United States. "We can pull together and pull out the
goals."
In the other quarterfinals, defending champion Sweden crashed out
after losing to Denmark 4-2 in a replay of the Athens Paralympic Games final
while world champion and title favorite Lithuania bounced back from yesterday's
7-6 loss against Slovenia to breeze past Canada 10-0.
China will play
Lithuania in Saturday's semifinals while Sweden is to clash with the United
States.
Xinhua
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