Turkmenistan hold DPRK to a draw

Bernard PERERA

The fourth match of the ongoing AFC Challenge Cup played at the Sugathadasa stadium between North Korea and Turkmenistan ended in a one all draw under lights yesterday.

DPR Korea started the game with high promise to baffle the Turkmenistan from the word go. They kept the ball on the move with an intelligent manner producing top class soccer for nearly ten minutes. Their display with the ball specially the world Cup poolist Pak Nam Chol defending handled the defence line in an excellent manner.

But the Turkmenistanis Played gallantly and made few good moves to their opponents territory to stun the Koreans at times. Turkmenistanis going in to the halfway mark of the first session caught up well and they too and found good results in the 36th minute with brilliant shooting from 30 meters to find the most wanted goal to take the lead. This added pressure to the Koreans who entered the field as favourite on third day.

After the turn around the Turkmenistan who held the lead at the half way mark had to face stiff opposition from the Koreans as they got their act together. They really thrilled the crowds with fast attacking soccer. Their main intention being to find the equaliser. They The fiftieth minute saw them succeed in their attempt when Ryang Yong struck found the equalizer.

The Game got much faster with Turkmenistan too trying to break the deadlock. but both sides failed to achieve success. Many chances were missed by both teams.

With little over twenty minutes left Thai Referee Mahapab Chaiya had to send out the Korea’s Omar for applying tough tactiscs on the field. This also made the total number of red cards to four from four games. Ref also had to pull out the Yellow card on five more occassions.

Kyrgyzstan beat India 2-1

Kyrgyzstan defeated India two goals to one in the third game of the AFC Challenge Cup yesterday at the Sugathadasa Stadium after leading 2-0 at the breather. This was also the first game of the group ‘B’ and the Kyrgyzstanis came on to the top spot in this group.

Kyrgyzstan got to the lead in the 15th minute of the game through the goal scored by Amirov Ildar, Amirov, came dashing in when the custodian failed to collect the ball cleanly and rebound and tapped in to the goal much effort.

It was mere negligence of the defender that brought the second goal for the Afghanistanis in the thirty second minute of the game. Zemlianuhin Anton, a fine dribbler was at his best. He was given the ball by the mid fielders and was running for it. The Indian defender had the chance of getting to the ball first but he completely mistimed and went past the ball.

Anton who moved sensibly made no mistake in collecting the ball and had only the custodian to go through and he did it without any difficulty.

This goal gave them a comfortable lead to go for the breather.

Indians too did fairly well by following their opponents and making many good moves to go past the Kyrgyzstan defenders but could not find the correct target to reduce the lead. They also made few long range kicks to test the custodian but those too were not accurate enough to trouble the opponents.

The second session began with India trying to reduce the and played attacking football while the Kyrgyzstanis were making every effort to hold on to their lead. But bad luck struck for the breakaway country when their skipper Bokoev Ibek was sent off the field for rough play a minute after the turn around. With this incident taking place the Kyrgyzstanis came across with more pressure and went on the defense rather than the attack.

Taking advantage of this situation, the Indians went on a full scale attack but the defense line of the Kyrgyzstanis managed to thwart the onslaught. The battle continued with both teams making every effort to penetrate each others territory.

Though both teams crossed their opponents’ defense lines, none could find the right target to score. Specially it was the Kyrgyzstanis who had to work hard as they were minus their skipper who was the mainstay for team.

Good fortune came for the Indians when referee offered a penalty for the them in the 58th minute of the game for rough play inside the box.

Denzil Michael Franco took the kick and made no mistake with it to score the goal which reduced the lead 2-1.

The Indians, after their goal went on the attack again with the hope of finding the equalizer which would have been given them some hope to enter the semifinal from the Group.

Hosts meet Tajikistan today

Sri Lanka will take on Tajikistan today at 4 p.m. at Sugathadasa Stadium. Sri Lanka will have to come up with a superlative performance in today’s game if they are to keep their hopes alive to enter the semi final. Tajikistan who failed against Bangladesh losing 2-1 in a hard fought game too will have to make a strong bid.

Tajikistan has the advantage with their physical conditions compared with the Lankans. With only the familiar conditions the Lankan players should combine well if they are to certain the strong outfit from Tajikistan. Specially the players should be used at their usual positions. But depending on the situation they will have to work harder with sensible passes. They also must make sure that they play their normal game.

At the same time they also should maintain the discipline required on the field. If don’t adhere to this the Lankans will have to pay the penalty like in the game where ten players had to struggle for almost 75 minutes. This was the biggest set back in the first game for Lankans. The Lankans should have good check on this issue and not make any mistakes.

The substitutions too has to be made according to the need rather than doing it just for the sake of doing. If these matters are looked into well the Lankan has a good chance of giving the Tajikistanis a strong challenge. BP