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| Some of the Cambodian U-14 squad, who are likely smaller in stature than their upcoming opponents |
The
Cambodia U-14 national team leave these shores for the AFC
Festival of Football in Malaysia this weekend, full of youthful hope and
optimism. And why not, they are the best of their age-group in the
country and have worked hard to put into practice the style of quick,
passing football that head coach Bouy Dary wants to see his youngsters
play. One point that Dary makes forcibly is on age-cheating. This is
where players are given fictitious birthdates/passports that allow them
to appear in age-group competitions when their real birthdates would
make them ineligible, as they are too old. This has been a blight on
youth football for many years in Asia and Africa and FIFA have made
great strides over the last few years to cut it out. "I disagree
strongly with this practice and will make sure it will not be allowed to
happen whilst I'm responsible for this team. I'm sure our boys will be physically smaller, but for me, we must take the
correct age for the boys, see how they perform against other countries
and then we can see how much we need to develop them, in order to be
competitive. I feel very strongly about this." He's also keen to keep
his squad together after this festival and will talk to the federation
about getting them together, perhaps once or twice a month. There is
little doubt that this U-14 squad will be the best prepared and the most
closely-knit of any Cambodian team of its age, especially with 17 of
the 22-strong squad coming from the Phnom Penh Crown Academy team, which
Dary mentors as the Crown head coach. The Malaysia festival will be the
fifth and final AFC Festival of Football this season after four
regional festivals that have
already taken place in Qatar, Pakistan, China and Nepal. There are
twelve nations joining the South East Asia regional series in
Kinabalu, Malaysia with Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Australia, Myanmar,
Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam joining the hosts and
Cambodia.
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| The Nepal U-14s who led their festival and look considerably bigger and stronger than their Cambodian counterparts |
3 comments:
I don't think Nepalese players are under 14s.
Well they certainly feed them well if they are. The moustaches and beards are a bit of a giveaway! I'm sure their documentation is in order but MRI scans might reveal some interesting information. Such scans are usually introduced at U-16 level for AFC competitions.
Nepal men are just about the same size as our Cambodian men but how come their boys are a lot bigger than ours? Maybe their boys grow up faster than our boys at young age but they stop growing earlier than our boys? lol
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