China savours historic moment

Chinese newspapers brushed aside on Monday the military strikes on Afghanistan to focus joyfully on a moment of Chinese history -- qualifying for the World Cup soccer finals for the first time.

They relegated the U.S.-British missile and bomb attacks to brief items at the bottom of the front page or to the inside pages.

The front pages were devoted to Sunday's 1-0 home victory over Oman that crowned the long effort by the world's most populous nation to overcome countries a fraction of its size and take its place on the world's top soccer stage.

The victory in the rust-belt northeastern city of Shenyang set off carnival-like celebrations across the country and huge pictures of revelling fans and red seas of national flags lit up the pages of Monday's papers.

"World Cup, Here We Come!" blared the popular Beijing Youth Daily atop a big picture of fans celebrating in Tiananmen Square, where more than 500,000 people turned out to party.

"44 years of waiting, six failures, several generations of continuous efforts, all end in victory in one battle in the new millennium," it said.

The Sports Express newspaper, published by the official Xinhua news agency, said in a front page editorial printed in red; "October 7, 2001 has become an unforgettable memorial day."

"The world's most influential competitive game finally opened its door to China, giving it the green light to march towards the Japan-Korea World Cup," it said.

"I will put a bouquet in Xiannongtan Stadium where my father's ashes are buried," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Jiang Yue, son of the late 1950's soccer star Jiang Jiexiang as saying.

"I will tell him that Chinese soccer has finally gone to the world," Jiang said.

COACH PRAISED

The newspapers lavished gratitude on Croat coach Bora Milutinovic and the players.

"The Chinese soccer team has brought us unbearable happiness. It came so suddenly that we almost had no time to think or remember," the Beijing Youth Daily said.

"A dream of several decades came true under Milutinovic's magic wand," the Beijing Youth Daily said.

"We must see this historic breakthrough as an inexorable outcome of the opening' of Chinese soccer," it went on to say.