Asian stars lacklustre in Europe

AFC - MOST of the Asian stars playing in the top European leagues were left reeling after they had failed to help their respective teams to victory over the weekend.

Toshiya Fujita was one of only a quartet of Asian players to emerge on the winning side, the Jubilo Iwata star helping FC Utrecht to a 3-1 win over Roda JC Kerkrade.

Korean dynamic duo Lee Young-pyo and Park Ji-sung were the other two as the East Asians helped PSV Eindhoven to a 4-0 win away at FC Zwolle while Masayuki Yanagisawa, likely to miss the Japanese squad for the East Asian Football Federation Championships, came off the bench on the hour mark to help Sampdoria to a 2-0 win over Ancona.

Despite not finishing on the victorious end, Japanese star Junichi Inamoto will be feeling upbeat over his performance against former club Arsenal over the weekend - the Fulham midfielder helping his side to a credible 0-0 draw away at Highbury.

Chinese international defender Sun Jihai didn't have such luck though, his own goal in the 29th minute giving Middlesbrough a head start enroute to claiming a 1-0 win at Manchester City.

In a seperate English Premiership game, Sun's international compatriot Li Tie failed to make the squad for Everton's match against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

AFC Player of 2003 nominee Mehdi Mahdavikia and Japanese striker Naohiro Takahara both started for Hamburg SV on Saturday but eventually had to settle for a 1-1 draw at home against Werder Bremen.

Even free scoring Persian Vahid Hashemian was off colour over the weekend, his side VfL Bochum too held to yet another uninspiring 0-0 draw by VfB Stuttgart.

Elsewhere in Holland, reigning AFC Player of the Year Shinji Ono started for Feyenoord against Ajax Amsterdam in the plum tie of the league so far.

However, Ono was substituted by Korean Republic counterpart Song Chong-gug in the ninth minute after Feyenoord had gone down to a Rafael van der Vaart brace early in the game.

Feyenoord eventually lost 2-0 at the Amsterdam Arena to allow Ajax to go four points at the top of the table.

Meanwhile in the Serie A, Japan skipper Hidetoshi Nakata and international compatriot Shunsuke Nakamura both did not feature in their team’s escapades over the weekend. Nakata was missing from Parma’s 3-1 win over Chievo Verona while Nakamura too watched the proceedings from the bench as Reggina were held to a home draw by Bologna.

AFC Young Player of the Year Lee Chun-soo watched his Spanish side Real Sociedad carve out a 2-2 draw away at Murcia.