China may not have qualify for the real World Cup tournament in South Africa. But the nation's robots are finding the goal. A Chinese team qualified and won the final soccer game in the small and large robot category matches in the annual international Humanoid Robot Olympic Games in Harbin. Though thousands of screaming fans and vuvuzelas were missing. There was excitement as Chinese, South Korean and American teams pitted their robots against each other on the soccer pitch.

Two mechanical players on each team dribbled, kicked and passed the ball around while a faired robot defended the goal. Harbin Institute of Technology Computer Science student Guo Weichao who won the match after his robot scored the most number of goals in a penalty shootout said China's robot soccer team was better than the human one.

"One makes us better than the human Chinese team, in my opinion are two things. On the one hand, it is physical ability. When humans are playing a match, their physical performance will weaken and will become really exhausted. But our robots are the best among the electricity, power options. You will never get tired during a match."

South Korea's World Cup team advanced to the knock-out stage, but its robot players failed to hold off China's attack. Though the traditional red and yellow card drama was missing from the games. Stance, flips and somersault wowed audiences and left many choices for humanoid man of the match

P R, Reuters.