| James Kon |
A GOAL from Cambodia’s midfielder Sos Suhana in the first half was enough to sink Singapore 1-0 in the last Group B match to secure them a path into the semi-final of the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy for ASEAN Youth Football Tournament 2018.
Cambodia coming to the match with the ‘win or go home’ attitude and in search for the maximum three points looked more dangerous in their attacks.
On 12th minute, Cambodia No12 Sos Suhana’s long pass nearly found No 10 Mat Noon in front of the net.
Nine minutes later, Cambodia nearly broke the deadlock when Mat Noon missed a header in the near post.
On 23rd minutes, Cambodia finally took the lead.
Thanks to a good passing game in the midfield, No 23 Brak Thiva managed to break through the defence and hit a powerful low strike that was blocked by Singapore Goalkeeper Zharfan Rohaizad. The ball then rolled to Sos Suhana who scored into the empty net.
The situation went from bad to worse for Singapore when the team was reduced to 10 men on 35th minute after Coach Fandi Ahmad’s son, Irfan, received his marching order from the referee following a foul of Cambodia’s Mat Noron who had to be stretchered out of the field.
With the red card, Irfan will miss the semi-final match against Timor Leste tomorrow night.
With 10 men in the field, Singapore was forced to switch their strategy to a more defensive play while trying to look for opportunities for counter attack.
The strategy worked in the second half when No 12 Hami Said nearly found the equaliser on the 74th minute but Cambodia goalkeeper Chea Vansak managed to stop the effort.
Coach Prak Sovannara of Cambodia was delighted with his team’s performance.
He said, “Our team just finished the league and didn’t have much preparation for this tournament. We lost to Laos 2-1, we knew that we only have one chance to go to the semi-final which is to win against Singapore. So we have to take the chance and the boys did well”
He said Myanmar are the defending champions and considered to be best team in the tournament. “But in football, anything can happen.”
Singapore coach Fandi Ahmad, meanwhile, said, “We are quite happy with the result. It’s not easy for us to play our game after the red card. This changed the way of the play to sit back and counter.”
He added, “We really wanted to win this game but unfortunately we didn’t have the number to go forward.
“Our mission is to reach the final and hope that we can make it,” he said On losing Irfan in the semi-final, coach Fandi Ahmad said, “It was crucial because we needed to change our strategy.”
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