Monday, 25 October 2010

Cambodia eye qualification for 2010 Suzuki Cup


via CAAI

Monday, 25 October 2010 15:00 H S Manunath


Striker Kim Borey’s sensational first half hat trick and Nuth Sinoun’s second half strike combined in good measure to give Cambodia a morale boosting 4-2 victory over East Timor at the National Sports Complex in Vientiane yesterday, keeping alive their hopes of grabbing one of the two qualifying places on offer in the 2010 Suzuki Cup preliminaries.

On the back of a goalless draw on the opening day against a youthful Laotian side Friday, Cambodia got down to their second game in the four-team tourney yesterday with a must win mentality. The nimble-footed Kim Borey quickly made his menacing presence in the East Timor box turn into a glorious treble strike. The newest and the smallest nation in the region, however, had opened the scoring on 5 minutes, and made a resilient come back late on to reduce the margin to two moments after Nuth Sinoun had put the game beyond doubt with Cambodia’s decisive fourth. The Phillipines had trounced East Timor 5-0 on Friday.

National coach Lee Tae Hoon’s immense confidence in goalkeeper Ouk Mich had been more than justified Friday, when the first choice stopper stood rock solid in moments of great adversity as Laos launched a series of well-coordinated strikes during a dominant second half showing. The Kingdom’s men managed to squeeze out a stalemate for a share of the points despite a splintery defence shifting a heavy load on Ouk Mich. The Cambodian strikers, led by the usually reliable Khoun Laboravy, had several open chances with Kim Borey and Kuoch Sokumpheak constantly harassing the Laos defence during the first half. But a profitable strike eluded Cambodia.

After the change of ends, the momentum dramatically shifted to the Laotian side, and the visitors were pegged back inside their own half for most of the time, only for a goal to ultimately elude the hosts.

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