North Korea in resounding win

Bernard Perera

North Korea took the top spot in Group B of the AFC Challenge Cup 2010 when they outplayed India by three goals to nil at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday. Korea came to the field as hot favourites with a good record in the past two games which also assured them of a semi final berth.

India on the other side were playing to record a win in a game here, but their hopes were dashed with North Korea achieving a comfortable victory. North Korea led 1-0 with goals being scored in the 36th minute by Ryang Yong Gi. India pressed hard to find the equalizer but failed in all their attempt as the strikers could not find the correct target.

The second session commenced with North Korea playing a relaxed game and at times penetrated the defence line with quick moves. The result was that Choe Chol Mam found the net to add to their score to make it 2-0. Indians never let the game go away and fought well to restrict their opponents from scoring freely.

The 71st minute brought further luck for the Koreans and Yang Gi when he made it three nil and his personal score to two.

North Korea will take on Myanmar in the semi-final.

Turkmenistan triumph

Meanwhile in the other game in the same group Turkmenistan defeated Kysgyzstan one goal to nil to safeguard their semi final berth. This game was played at CR and FC ground, Longden Place. At half time it was a blank sheet. Nurmurador Begli scored the solitary goal for winners in the 70th minute.

Turkmenistan will clash with Tajikistan in the second semi-final on Wednesday.

India failed to win a single match during this tournament. The Indian coach Sukisinder Singh said that the team was minus four of their regulars yesterday due to injury and one with a red card.

He admitted that though his defence line performed well the strikers failed to take advantage of the situation.

Meanwhile the North Korean coach Jo Tong Sop was a happy man who said that his next target is to win the semi-final against Myanmar.

“Myanmar is a fast attacking team, we have to first play a defensive game to study the pattern of play before going on a large scale attack. Our strikers have done well and will continue the same in the next game too,” said Sop.

The standings:

Group A

		P	W	D	L	G/F	G/A	Pts
Tajikistan	3	2	0	1	7	3	6
Myanmar		3	2	0	1	6	4	6
Sri Lanka	3	1	0	2	4	7	3
Bangladesh	3	1	0	2	3	6	3

Group B

		P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
North Korea	3	2	1	0	8	1	7
Turkmenistan	3	2	1	0	3	1	7
Kysgyzstan	3	1	0	2	2	6	3
India		3	0	0	3	1	6	0