Lanka looking for another win

Bernard Perera

SOCCER: The Sri Lanka soccerites who had a morale boosting win on the opening day of the 10th South Asian Games soccer championships last Monday over Maldives will take on the defending champions Pakistan in their second game today at Sugathadasa stadium under lights.

The kick off is scheduled for 6.00 p.m.

Lankans who were the first team to register a win on the opening day out of three games will have to come up with better performance to halt the defending champions from getting the better of them.

Pakistanis on the other hand are coming in to the game soon after participating in tournament in the Middle East.

They arrived only on Thursday in the island and this will be their first game of the championship though the other teams have already played two matches each except Sri Lanka as the Pakistanis are not in the island.

The only other team to record a victory in the championship to date was the Maldivians who beat Bhutan one goal to nil on Wednesday. At present Sri Lanka and Maldives have collected three points.

Sri Lankan coach Jang Jung is confident that the boys will put up a another good performance to keep them in the lead. This he says can be achieved if the boys play to a set plan following the pattern their opponents adopt during the game.

Upto now the team has worked well unitedly. This he says has to continue if they are reap rich harvests.

Lankan Manager Clement de Silva too is confident that the team will put up a another better show against the defending champions Pakistan.

Presently the team is in high spirits after their success over Maldives which Lankans achieved after lapse of fifteen years. This too was a boost for the boys to keep their hopes high in facing the Pakistanis said de Silva.

He also added that the players are minus injuries and it is expected that the same is to take the field today.

So far the refereeing has been good except for the Maldives and Bhutan match where lot of faults were noticed by the spectators. This is not a good sign for the betterment of the championship as well as for the development of the sport.