Sunday, May 20, 2012

U-14s squad announced

The final 22 players & coaches with Cambodia's U-14s - click to enlarge
I can reveal the Cambodian U-14 national squad for the forthcoming AFC Festival of Football in Kinabalu, Malaysia, with the squad and coaches leaving on 27 May and returning on 4 June. This is the fifth regional AFC competition this year, with others already played in Qatar, Pakistan, China and Nepal. There are twelve nations joining the South East Asia region competition in Malaysia with Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Australia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam joining the hosts and Cambodia. Match results from the festival are not made public as the AFC firmly believe that it's more about instilling love of the game among the young players and honing their basic skills and teamwork rather than being results-orientated. The man in charge of the team is Bouy Dary, a former national player and now the head coach of the Phnom Penh Academy. His assistant coaches are Long Rithea (from the Army) and Ouk Mic (PKR's former national goalkeeper). The selection process saw over 100 youngsters whittled down to a squad of thirty before the announcement of today's final squad of 22 players, who will travel to Malaysia to represent their country. The squad is:
Goalkeepers: Kung Chanvuthy (Prek Kdam), That Pheakdey (Preah Khan Reach).
Defenders: Long Phearath, Men Piphop, Ouk Sovann, Seut Baraing, Kim Chhaya, Suon Noeut, Chhuot Senteang, Sraing Titchhy (all Phnom Penh Crown).
Midfielders: Sath Rozak, Orn Chanpolin, In Sodavid, Choun Chanchav, Theang Chhaya (all PPCFC), Kunthea Ravann (Preah Khan Reach).
Forwards: Yeu Muslim, Pon Ponvuthy, Ken Chansopheak, Mat Sakrovy (all PPCFC), Kim Hap (Preah Khan Reach), Mat Nuron (Army).  

National coach Bouy Dary had this to say on releasing the names of his final squad selection. "We started the selection process in mid-March with over 100 boys and in two weeks we reduced that to thirty boys. We have trained twice a week, Thursday and Friday, with a game every Sunday since then. They've worked really hard and have tried hard to do what I've asked of them. They have all improved a lot. We played two games against the older boys at Preah Khan Reach and they did everything I asked them to do, though because our boys are smaller we had problems in the attacking and defensive third. I now know what to do against bigger teams. We expect teams from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore will be bigger and I think Japan and Korea will be well developed.
We plan to take them into training camp on 22 May at Cheng Meng, so we'll train every day and have a match or two before we leave for Malaysia. I want them to play good football, attacking football, good passing and be well organized. We are small but we are quick, so we'll try to play short passes and move, rather than concentrate on possession football. I have my view on how I want the game to be played and we will do our best to represent Cambodia in the right way. As the coach, I want to win and to win we must play good football, as a team. That is our aim."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck team!! We are cheering you on!!

Andy Brouwer said...

The format of the U-14 Festival will be as follows. All the teams will have to play in round robin format. Each squad comprising of 22 players will be divided into two teams of 11 players each. The matches are going to be conducted in two formats: one will be a 30 minutes match (the 1st round of games) while others will be 60 minutes match (2nd round of games). Apart from that the technical skills of all the players participating will also be judged.
This is the standard AFC conditions for the U-14 Festivals held in five countries, with Malaysia being the final one to take place.
Andy