Sixteen U12 (under 12) soccer players from the United States played a friendly match with their counterparts from Dongbeilu Primary School in Dalian in a recent visit to China, and the home team won the match 4-3.

Colin Rigby, coach of the visiting Mercer Island United club of Washington, spoke highly of the Chinese team.

"They did very good job. I think two or three of the Chinese players are capable of playing top-level games in the US," he said.