We're through

Matchwinner Khim Borey (7) with Hong Pheng (25) at the final whistle

At one stage it looked like the game would never take place. The torrential rain left most of the Olympic Stadium pitch covered in water and there was no end in sight to the rain. As we got closer to kick-off time, the AFC match commissioner and match referee got the team coaches to agree that a half-hour delay might just see an improvement and they were right. The players had a twenty-minute warm-up on the rain-sodden pitch, after they'd already warmed up inside the Olympic indoor court, as the rain weakened and the surface water quickly disappeared, with the match finally getting underway at 5pm. The state of the pitch was a leveller for both sides. Phnom Penh Crown needed a win to secure qualification from Group B of the AFC President's Cup, while Nepal Police required a win to keep their hopes alive.

With everything to play for, a crowd of 3,500 braved the elements, hoping to witness a Crown success and Tieng Tiny gave them the first attempt on goal in the fourth minute, as his 35-yard shot fizzed wide. Nepal's Yogesh Shrestha was prominent early on, causing a few problems and twice his goal-bound attempts ended up in the arms of Crown keeper Yok Ary. The first real threat on either goal came on 21 minutes and Khim Borey's glorious strike from fifteen yards out would prove to be decisive. Kouch Sokumpheak collected a ball on the touchline, moved inside and hit a precise cross-field ball to his long-time strike partner Borey, who took a touch before unleashing an unstoppable drive inside the far post. Borey, his teammates and the audience in the grandstand were in raptures. After the opening goal, Crown got the bit between their teeth and soon after Sok Pheng clouted a shot a foot wide of the upright, Sokumpheak fired over from outside the box, Pheng cut inside his marker and hit the side-netting, while Sokumpheak missed by a whisker, getting on the end of a Borey center. Just after the half-hour, Sokumpheak and Pheng combined with the latter's stinging drive pushed aside at full stretch by Nepal stopper Ritesh Thapa. At the other end, Sos Suhana blocked a Bhola Silwal drive while Yok Ary was in the right place to collect a Shrestha downward header and to punch the same player's inswinging corner from under the crossbar.

The half-time interval proved a blessing for both teams, who needed the rest after battling with the pitch conditions. Odion Obadin opened up the second-half with a 40-yard effort that just crept over the bar. His first-half performance had been exceptional and he went close to extending Crown's lead. Ten minutes in and Sokumpheak, released by Chan Dara's pass, couldn't believe his misfortune when his sliderule shot hit one post, rolled along the goal-line to hit the foot of the other upright before Ouk Sothy blasted the loose ball against the frame of post and bar. Crown continued to press forward and Sok Pheng was denied by Suraj's last-ditch tackle, Borey headed straight at Thapa and a Suhana 25-yard effort skidded wide. On 70 minutes, Obadin looked to have netted again, only for Thapa to fingertip his powerful header from Sothy's corner, over the crossbar. A flurry of corners for Nepal put Yok Ary under pressure with Shrestha's pin-point inswingers forcing the Crown stopper to twice punch the ball away from his goal-line.

A few minutes later and it was Chan Dara's turn to strike the woodwork. Picking up a loose ball a long way out, he sped forward and decided on a pot-shot, which Thapa pushed onto the post and collected the rebound. A well-struck free-kick from Nepal's dangerman, Shrestha, was tipped over by Ary before their best chance fell to Rakesh Shrestha at the far post but his touch failed him and the opportunity was spurned. In the closing minutes, Suhana's touch found Thapa in the way while Sokumpheak knew it wasn't his day, when he broke clear and watched as his low drive deflected off the foot of the post again. In the second of four added minutes, Hong Pheng set up Borey for what looked like a simple second, but his sidefoot went agonizingly past the post, but it didn't matter. His 21st minute strike was the one that counted and which sends Crown through to the final round later this year, with still a game to spare in their Group B qualifying stage. It got a bit nervous towards the end, a one-goal lead nearly always brings with it a few heart flutters, but David Booth's men deservedly came out on top against worthy opponents, much to the delight of the watching spectators.
PPCFC v Nepal Police: Ary, Rady, Sovan, Tiny, Obadin, Sothy, Dara, Suhana, S Pheng (H Pheng 63), Borey, Sokumpheak. Subs not used: Chamrouen, Vanthan, Lika, Sophanal, Seyha, Sovanna, Makara. Bookings: Suhana. 

PPCFC line-up. Back LtoR: Obadin, Rady, Tiny, Sovan, Dara, Ary. Front: S Pheng, Suhana, Sothy, Sokumpheak, Borey

The pitch moments before kick-off

Today is key

We want to see more of this later today - Khim Borey celebrating a goal

It's Phnom Penh Crown's biggest game of the season today. If they beat Nepal Police Club at 4.30pm at the Olympic Stadium, they will qualify for the finals again, to be held in September. If they don't win, then they make it more difficult for themselves, as they will need to get something from a very strong Dordoi team on Wednesday. So today is the key. Though Nepal lost against Dordoi on Saturday, they too know that a victory will keep their own hopes of qualifying, alive. So both teams will be going for it, which should make for an exciting game for the spectators, both at the ground and live on TV5. Crown will be confident and positive after beating Yeedzin 8-0 but they know that Nepal will be a different kettle of fish and are more experienced in international football than the Bhutanese team. That experience counts for a lot in these one-off games and Crown will look to the likes of Kouch Sokumpheak, Khim Borey and Tieng Tiny to bring their best game to the table. Nepal look set to be without their influential skipper Jumanu Rai, who has a knee problem but Crown will also miss their own inspirational playmaker, Emmanuel Frimpong, who tore his calf in the second minute of Saturday's win over Yeedzin. It's all building up to a fantastic encounter. 
The pictures were provided by Masayori Ishikawa. See more of his photos here.

The Crown players celebrate with coach David Booth on Saturday

Official madness

The 4th official Sukhbir Singh is 3rd from the left, with beard

Let me tell you a short story. The 4th official at football matches has a couple of tasks to do, in the case of the AFC President's Cup matches, they check the playing shirts and ID cards in the dressing rooms beforehand, they tell us how many minutes the referee is adding on, they hold up or allow the physio to treat injured players...and they are supposed to handle substitutions and hold up the board with the players numbers. The last one is pretty crucial. So how the heck did the 4th official for the opening game, Phnom Penh Crown v Yeedzin, Sukhbir Singh from Singapore, manage to forget his subs board? Crown's influential midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong tore his calf muscle a minute and a half into the game and hobbled off. The Crown bench assessed the injury and by the fifth minute were ready to send Chan Dara onto the pitch as his replacement. That is until Mr Singh realised he'd forgotten something. Throughout this time, Crown were playing with ten men. Eventually, the official went to retrieve his board and Crown were able to make their change after 9 minutes 11 seconds. Fortunately for Mr Singh, Crown did not concede during this period or else there might have been a mini riot on the Crown bench. I wonder if that was in the AFC report of the game.

On the domestic front

I still find it mind-boggling that the federation went through with two Metfone C-League matches yesterday afternoon, over at the Army Stadium, instead of postponing the games so more players and fans could go to watch the AFC President's Cup games at Olympic Stadium. As it turned out, Kirivong came good again, making leaders NagaCorp battle for a point apiece in a 1-1 draw, in the early kick-off. An own goal by Sos Nasiet gave Naga the lead just before the half-hour. Egyptian import Rada Badry levelled a few minutes later and that's how it remained until the final whistle. In the 2nd match, Nhim Sovannara gave BBU the lead but after that it went downhill for the students. Their opponents Preah Khan whacked in five without further reply to stroll to an easy three points. Finding the target for PKR were Lay Raksmey, new arrival Nigerian David Njoku who has returned to the club after a stint in Thailand, an own goal by Phin Pheara, Tum Saray and Prak Mony Udom. PKR have also added former Khemara and Navy player Joseph Olatubosun to their squad though he didn't feature yesterday.
Update: In this afternoon's C-League matches at the Army Stadium, Boeung Ket beat Western Uni 4-1. The students took an early lead through Philip Ali but there was only one winner and that was achieved through Friday Nwakuna with two goals, Chukwuma Darlington and Keo Sokngorn for the Rubbermen. In the second game, national Police went back to the top of the table, two points clear of NagaCorp, with a 3-0 won over bottom club Chhlam Samuth. Tith Dina and Sim Vutha with two strikes just before half-time wrapped up a sixth win in eight games for the Police.

After-match chat

Head coach David Booth at the press conference

Phnom Penh Crown's head coach David Booth spoke at the after-match press conference about his team's 8-0 success over the Bhutanese team, Yeedzin. "You don't know how it's going to go in games like this. You set up your own team and try to make sure they start properly. Our biggest problem in the last few weeks is that we've made mistakes early in the game, and it nearly happened again today. We got away with it. I think 8-0 flattered us a little bit, we were still a bit too sloppy at the back at times.
We felt that after 15-20 minutes, their back four was quite square, so we were looking to play 1-2's and round the side of them and it worked well. For this level of competition, I withdrew our two wider players. They are both quite quick. It worked for us today and it gave us a lot of chances in the first-half. I think the Bhutan team suffered with the weather today, it destroyed them really. Our players train in this heat so we are more used to it.
In the second-half, I felt the wind would hold the ball up better for us and I told the team to get the ball up to the front men, support them, more 1-2's, and play behind them as that's where the danger was. We had a lot of chances. If we'd scored more it would've been a little embarrassing.
It will be a different game on Monday against Nepal. We need to tighten up our concentration. We didn't cover each other well enough at the back. We are not the strongest team by a mile - we've got to be very careful. We've got one result, if we can get another win, somehow, whichever way we can, we'll go through. So Monday is a very important game for us. I'd rather win on Monday then need to win on Wednesday.
I don't think Emmanuel will play again in this competition. His injury is far worse than it looks. I think it's a torn calf muscle, it wasn't a kick, just a twist. Sok Pheng got injured as well; he asked to come off just before he scored his goal. He doesn't score easy goals, no tap-in's, he only scores fantastic goals. Tiny also has one or two bumps to sort out."

Hat-trick hero Khim Borey was upbeat after the final whistle. "I'm very happy and excited to score a hat-trick for my club today. It's very important for the team and for my own confidence. I felt our team understood each other, we passed well and co-operated together against the Bhutan team. 8 goals was wonderful but we wanted more. For the next match, the Nepal team is a very good team but both the team and myself will try our very best to win on Monday. We know what we have to do."

Pin-up scores three

This Dordoi line-up easily beat Nepal Police 5-1

Dordoi from Kyrgyzstan have the evil eye over Nepal Police Club, beating them on every occasion that they meet in the AFC President's Cup including the 2007 competition final. Today was no different. The Kyrgyz players were bigger, stronger and deadlier and were three goals to the good within 14 minutes. It looked like a rout was on the cards. Two goals from the mobile Mirlan Murzaev on three and fourteen minutes and one sandwiched in between by Kaiumzhan Sharipov on twelve minutes did all the early damage and effectively killed off the tie. After that Dordoi took their foot of the peddle and conceded a penalty with the last kick of the half, which Nepal's busy playmaker Parbat Pandey converted. After the break, Dordoi were never in trouble and Murzaev scored his hat-trick goal on 64 minutes after a misplaced pass fell invitingly for him. On 68 minutes Azamat Baimatov struck a powerful free-kick against the upright from all of thirty-five yards. Two minutes later he repeated the feat with an unstoppable shot from open play that sailed into the top corner and settled the final score at 5-1 in Dordoi's favour. Their Russian coach Sergey Dvoryankov wasn't overly pleased with his team. "I'm not so happy with the performance. We had many chances to score but we didn't and our defending at times wasn't great either. The first task was to win, which we did." Hat-trick man Murzaev is just 22 years old and is the pin-up boy of the Kyrgyzstan national team striker, who has also had experience in Russia with feeder team Locomotiv-2 Moscow and in Israel with Hopoel Petah Tikva. He was the 2010 most valuable player of the AFC President's Cup with five goals as his team lost in the final. For Nepal Police their next game against Phnom Penh Crown takes on a crucial significance with the Nepalese needing to get something out of the game to give them a chance of qualifying. It all points to becoming a real barnstormer of a match on Monday at 4.30pm.

The Nepal Police Club lost again to their bogey club

Coach Dvoryankov (left) and his translator at the press conference

Best possible start

PPCFC v Yeedzin. Back Row LtoR: Tiny, S Pheng, Obadin, Frimpong, Sovan, Ary. Front: Rady, Sothy, Suhana, Sokumpheak, Borey

You wake up in the middle of the night, sweating and fretting about an upcoming football match but on the day everything goes swimmingly well and you ask yourself, what was all the fuss about. And that's how it turned out today, as Phnom Penh Crown virtually coasted, in the scorching sun, to a murderous 8-0 victory over the students from Bhutan, Yeedzin in the first Group B game of the AFC President's Cup qualifying round. Unaccustomed to playing in such heat and humidity, Yeedzin looked second best from the moment Yeshey Dorji wasted a great opportunity with just thirteen seconds on the clock. He blazed his shot well over and that was it. The home team completely dominated proceedings after that, with head coach David Booth's pre-match words of "make things happen" ringing in their ears. Even losing their find of the season, Emmanuel Frimpong, just over a minute into the game with a calf strain, didn't phase the Crown team with captain Kouch Sokumpheak playing like a man possessed throughout the first-half. It was the best all-action performance we've seen from Sokumpheak this season, bar none. With Chan Chaya unable to play, Ouk Sothy got the nod in midfield with Sok Pheng playing the lone striker role, ably supported by Sokumpheak and Khim Borey. The latter found space early on to play in two low crosses, the first was gathered by Yeedzin keeper Leki, the second allowed Sok Pheng to lay the ball into the path of Sokumpheak and Leki was again on hand to brilliantly tip over the captain's vicious strike from 20 yards. Less than a minute later, Sokumpheak was at it again as a corner landed at his feet, this time forcing Leki into a full-length diving save with another on-target drive. Next the Crown skipper turned provider and Sos Suhana was an inch or two from connecting to his slide-rule center across the six-yard box.
On 19 minutes, Sokumpheak started and finished a move that put Crown noses in front. His pass to Suhana allowed him to cut back inside and feed Sok Pheng, who did the same to set-up Sokumpheak and his pin-point drive into the corner gave Leki no chance from the edge of the penalty box. It was a lead Crown fully deserved. Sokumpheak and Pheng combined again with the skipper lashing a low shot against the foot of the upright and Borey blasted the rebound over an open goal. A minute later, the red-hot Sokumpheak sped past his marker and raced in on goal, only to find Leki in good form with his feet at the near post. Odion Obadin tried to get in on the act but blasted well over from a poorly-cleared corner. A simple passing move saw Pheak Rady swing over a well-directed cross that found Khim Borey in acres of space to head neatly into the corner of the net from twelve yards out and spark celebrations amongst his teammates on  26 minutes. Crown continued to press home their advantage as Sok Pheng broke clear but fired harmlessly wide, Borey dragged a left-foot swinger a yard past the far post, whilst Leki was called upon to block another Sokumpheak half-volley. Borey looked to have put the result beyond doubt just four minutes from the interval, when he latched onto Obadin's long ball over the top and neatly lobbed the ball over Leki's head to give Crown a three-goal advantage.

Pheak Rady was prominent on the right wing in Crown's first real probing attack of the second-half. His flashing center was an inch away from Suhana's right boot but fell to Sok Pheng and his goal-bound shot was deflected for a corner by Tshering Wangdi. Eight minutes after the interval and Ouk Sothy was on hand to register Crown's fourth goal. Borey touched in Sok Pheng and he weaved to the bye-line before pulling the ball back to Sothy lying in wait ten yards out and his left-foot shot found the net. A minute later, the same player was on his own goal-line, clearing the danger after Yeshey Dorji had deceived Ary. It was a brief flurry from Yeedzin, as Crown resumed control a minute after the hour-mark, with Sos Suhana getting his name on the scoresheet. Combining well with Sokumpheak, Suhana took a deft touch past the last defender and kept his cool to find the net with a neat finish. On 65 minutes, Sok Pheng's fierce drive was kept out by another Leki save only for Suhana to roll the ball to Borey and his 20-yard drilled effort found the net off the post. It was Borey's hat-trick goal and he was substituted to generous applause a few minutes later, but not before Sothy had leaned back and fired a shot well over the cross-bar. 

Sub Hong Pheng's seventy-yard run from his own box slipped in Sok Pheng but his drilled drive was just off target. Sokumpheak was in on goal next but as he shaped to shoot, Thinley Rabten made a last-ditch tackle. In the 76th minute, Sok Pheng signed off by shimmying his way past three defenders and unleashing an unstoppable drive that gave Leki no chance from fifteen yards out. With Crown now running riot, Sokumpheak's low shot was blocked by Leki's legs, but his next effort, from the edge of the box with five minutes left on the clock, found Leki in the way again, but Hong Pheng followed up and lashed the ball inside the near post. That made it eight in Crown's favour and a really good day for the home side in their opening AFC President's Group B match.
Crown line-up v Yeedzin: Ary, Rady, Sovan, Tiny, Obadin, Sothy, Suhana, Frimpong (Dara 10), S Pheng (Makara 77), Borey (H Pheng 69), Sokumpheak. Subs not used: Chamrouen, Vanthan, Lika, Sophanal, Seyha, Sovanna. Bookings: Sothy.

Kouch Sokumpheak leads out the Crown side

David Booth addressing his players before today's match in the dressing room

Important words before the starting line-up go for their warm-up

The last moments before the start of the match

It's half-time in the Crown dressing room

Yeedzin from Bhutan were soundly beaten 8-0 this afternoon

Footy stuff, of course

The AFC President's Cup gets underway at 1.30pm this afternoon, a time lambasted by all concerned because of the usual ferocity of the sun at that time of day. The team from Yeedzin in particular are concerned about the effect of the climate on their players, as they usually play in much colder weather and never experience the extremes of heat we get here. Let alone playing a major football match in it. And, by the luck of the draw, they will play all of their games at the same time. You've got to feel for them.

Any other association or federation would've given their clubs a day off so that the players and fans could've concentrated their support for their countrymen during a major regional football competition taking place on their doorstep. Not so the football federation of Cambodia. They have scheduled two Metfone C-League matches for this afternoon, at the god-awful Army Stadium, rather than giving everyone the opportunity to get along to the Olympic Stadium to show their support for Phnom Penh Crown's efforts to qualify for the finals of the AFC President's Cup. Or maybe it's just me, maybe I expect too much of the FFC. Today's games involve Kirivong against leaders NagaCorp at 2pm and BBU v Preah Khan at 4pm. Earlier than normal as the Army Stadium doesn't have floodlights, or grass for that matter, or changing rooms. Tomorrow, at the same venue, Boeung Ket meet Western Uni at 2pm and the National Police take on Chhlam Samuth in the later game. I wish all the teams the best on that crap surface where passing football is simply impossible.

For insomniacs

Finding it hard to sleep, then watch this YouTube video of the AFC President's Cup press conference from yesterday, well part of the session, and you'll be fast asleep in no time. I didn't realize I sound incredibly boring on video. The sound isn't great but you get the general idea. I'm the bell-end in the middle of the picture for much of the time.

Build-up continues

The 4 head coaches, LtoR, Dvoryankov (Dordoi), Booth (PPCFC), Shrestha (Nepal), Pradhan (Yeedzin)

The main business of the Team Manager's meeting at any major competition like the AFC President's Cup, is to resolve issues regarding playing kit, especially if the team kit clashes in any specific match and much of the other business is run-of-the-mill stuff. As an example, Phnom Penh Crown were asked to change their goalkeeper's colours to orange for their last two matches to avoid a clash with their opponents. Not a problem. Perhaps the major point at this morning's meeting at the Phnom Penh Hotel, to which all four clubs attended alongwith the AFC officials and stadium officials, was a change to the last day of the competition. After inspecting the Army Stadium, the AFC suits decided that it wasn't up to standard (anyone could've told them that) and so they reverted back to playing both matches on Wednesday 9 May at the Olympic Stadium. The match between Yeedzin and Nepal will now start at 1.30pm with Dordoi v PPCFC following on at 4.30pm. This raised a muted objection from the Bhutan team but the AFC had decided so that was that. Yeedzin have to play all their matches at 1.30pm and this was a point reiterated by their coach at the press conference that followed. The first meeting finished at 10.30am and the press corps then invaded the room ready for the press conference. I was invited to chair the press conference and we kicked off around 11.20am with all four of the club coaches at the top table. Questions were invited from the assembled press, translations were done from/to Khmer language and it all went pretty smoothly with lots of television cameras and written press attending. Below is a selection of comments made by the coaches at the press conference:
David Booth (PPCFC);"At this level we expect every team to be a difficult proposition. We will prepare for each game separately, but the 1st game is the most important, to start off with a good result. We are expecting a tough 1st game and we hope we are in good shape and can put in a good performance. We have selected Obadin and Frimpong as our foreign players and our squad has eight international players, past and present."
Sergey Dvoryankov (Dordoi); "The 1st match is very important for us. We will play hard to win. We have played Nepal before but we don't look back, we have new players and we look only forwards. We hope to go to AFC Cup next year, this is our hope and plan, but we don't know. We have 2 foreign players, Tagoe from Ghana and Jean Carlos from Brazil. We also have two naturalized foreigners, Tetteh from Ghana and Koum from Cameroon, who are now Kyrgyz nationals."
Bikash Pradhan (Yeedzin); "It will be very difficult for us playing at 1.30pm because of the altitude and climate change. We play some games in minus degrees, so this is a drawback we face. It's a good opportunity to play against good teams. We have travelled far, have prepared well and we will give a good fight. The problem is the weather. We have two foreign players from India and three national team players."
Birat Shrestha (Nepal); "Dordoi are very strong, we play them 3 times and lose 3 times. We played a competition before we arrived and we have 3-4 injuries and so many problems. The first match is very important, and we are not going to lose. We will play for a share of the points. We have no foreign players in our team."

The Team Manager's meeting is just about to start

A record of success

Dordoi celebrate their latest championship success

The favourites in Group B of the AFC President's Cup qualifying round that kicks-off in Phnom Penh this weekend are undoubtedly Dordoi Bishkek from Kyrgyzstan. Like their fellow countrymen from Neftchi in last season's qualifiers here in Cambodia, Dordoi will present the biggest obstacle for the other three teams in the group. They are one of the two most successful club sides in the history of the AFC President's Cup, vying with Tajikistan's Regar-Tadaz for the top honour, with Regar just shaving it in terms of cup final victories, with three wins to Dordoi's two. However, Dordoi have also reached the final on another four occasions and are a definitive powerhouse when it comes to the AFC's third tier club cup competition. The surprise is that they weren't in the competition last season after Neftchi dislodged them from their domestic championship spot for the first time in seven seasons before they came storming back last October to reclaim their rightful place at the top of Kyrgyz football, which gained independence from Russia in 1992. Their current domestic campaign, with eight teams in the national league, has just begun and Dordoi head the table with three straight wins. Like Phnom Penh Crown, they have five overseas recruits in their ranks and will have to select just two from their foreign contingent from Brazil, Cameroon and Ghana, where midfielder Daniel Tagoe originates and who played when the two teams last met in 2009, the same year he was crowned Kyrgyz player of the year.

Their AFC President's Cup wins came in 2006 and 2007, beating Mahendra Police Club in the second final, now called Nepal Police Club and who also feature in this week's Group B. In their cup final defeats, Dordoi-Dynamo as they were known then, lost three times to their rivals Regar and once, in 2010 to Yadanarbon from Myanmar. In 2005, Crown's predecessor Hello United faced Dordoi-Dynamo and came off second-best, going down 6-1 in Nepal. In 2009 PPCFC travelled to Kyrgyzstan and lost 3-1 against Dordoi on their home turf with Lappe Lappe opening the scoring for Crown after half an hour. In the starting line-up for Crown were Tieng Tiny and Chan Chaya whilst Soeng Vanthan came on as a substitute. Some of the Crown team have faced them whilst playing for other Cambodian clubs in the President's Cup. Playing for Khemara in 2006, Kouch Sokumpheak, Tieng Tiny, Chan Chaya and Chan Dara were on the wrong end of  a 3-0 defeat against Dordoi. Sokumpheak faced them again with Khemara in 2007, losing 4-0, whilst Tieng Tiny met them in 2008 with Naga, going down 2-0. That means it's about time that the Crown squad were able to celebrate a positive result against one of the very best teams at this level.

Getting in shape

David Booth addressing his Crown players at Olympic Stadium today

  The four competing clubs in the upcoming AFC President's Cup Group Stage qualifying matches, starting this weekend, are allowed one training session on the Olympic Stadium pitch, where five of the half dozen matches will be played. This afternoon, it was the turn of Phnom Penh Crown. With only half of the pitch available as they were cutting and sweeping up the grass cuttings in the other half - not what I would call good timing by our own Federation - David Booth put his players through their paces with two-touch games, sprinting and shooting for the one hour session they were allowed. The rain held off thankfully though it was pretty windy throughout. Amongst the goalkeepers working out was a face from the recent past, that of Cambodia's former number 1 stopper, Samreth Seiha, previously with the Army, who turned his back on the game a couple of years ago when he was the country's best. Now he is back from his sabbatical and we'll have to see what transpires. The Crown squad will retire to their hotel, the Diamond, this evening as the players remain together for the duration of the tournament. They will have two training sessions tomorrow at 7am and 4pm at their own Tuol Kork pitch. The other three teams will have their Olympic session tomorrow, as well as sessions at Tuol Kork, the National Football Centre and the Mekong field over the course of the next six days. First thing tomorrow is the Team Manager's Meeting, at 9.30am at Phnom Penh Hotel. This is where the club's register their final 23-man squads - with only 2 foreign players eligible for each squad - as well as confirming playing kit colours and other match-related items with the AFC suits. After that there will be a Press Conference with all four teams answering questions from the assembled media ahead of the big kick-off on Saturday afternoon.

David Booth making sure his players understand what lies ahead

Skipper Kouch Sokumpheak addressing his teammates

Time for another quick group chat

Samreth Seiha getting back in the goalkeeping groove

Kouch Sokumpheak central, flanked by his teammates

Sos Suhana, Yok Ary, Chan Chaya and Tieng Tiny in view

Tony Obadin sees the funny side with Chhun Sovanna, Ngoy Srin and Kingsley Njoku alongside him

The AFC official football - each teams gets 15 balls to practice with

The grass sweepers on the Olympic pitch prevented Crown using the whole surface

A large billboard poster outside Olympic Stadium

The cops of Nepal

Nepal Police Club celebrate their Nepalese title success

Phnom Penh Crown's second opponents, on Monday 7 May, in the AFC President's Cup Group B matches will the Nepal Police Club, who had their most successful season in 2007 when they were known as Mahendra Police Club, not only winning their domestic Martyr's Memorial A-Division championship but they achieved a memorable run to the final of the AFC President's Cup, that year held in Pakistan, where they lost out 2-1 to another of our Group B opponents, Dordoi. In the qualifying group that year, MPC drew 0-0 with Tatung, lost 0-3 to Dordoi and then ravaged a Khemara Keila team (containing our own Kouch Sokumpheak) from Cambodia 6-4. That earned them a semi-final spot against Regar-Tadaz, which they won 2-1 to reach the final. The following year they nearly repeated that feat, progressing through the group stages but going down in the semi-final, 3-1 to Dordoi again, who have proved to be something of a bogey team, and who they face in Saturday's opening day tie. Their other two appearances in the AFC President's Cup, in 2009 and last year, ended at the group stage. Four times winners of their domestic championship, the club were formed as long ago as 1952 and captured their latest national title in January, though were rocked by the recent departure of their top scorer, Bharat Khawas, and will rely on the talents of skipper Jumanu Rai and Rabin Shrestha to carry their hopes in next week's tournament, as well as goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa, who starred in their recent British Gurkha knockout cup success at home. Police coach Birat Krishna Shrestha is looking forward to their opening game. "The first match against Dynamo will be vital for us and we´ll be eyeing for victory or draw as the results of the first match shall strengthen our hope of making into final round. We have lost all three times (versus Dordoi) due to our own mistakes. This time we will try not to repeat such mistakes."

Men in the middle

Referee Sukhbir Singh shows red in the SAFF final

There will be five AFC Elite referees for the upcoming AFC President's Cup Group B stage matches in Phnom Penh which begin on Saturday. They come from across the Asean region and represent Japan and Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East countries of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the best known of the five is Sukhbir Singh, a twenty-eight year old from Singapore that took charge of the SAFF final last year between India and Afghanistan that made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The game was evenly poised until a controversial penalty award to India saw the Afghan keeper push the referee earning a red card. India went onto score four goals in the last 25 minutes to win. Another from the Elite listing, those identified as the pick of the referees in the Asean region, is Khamis Mohammed Al-Marri, 27 and a regular in the Qatari Stars League in his home country. He was one of 10 AFC Project Future referees chosen to be on the FIFA referee list in 2011. Twenty-eight year old Ngor Amir Mohamed Noor was in the middle for the Malaysia versus Liverpool exhibition match last year and also officiated in the SAFF championships last season. The oldest of the five referees is Japan's Iida Jumpei at 31, whilst the youngest is 26 year old Fahad Al Mirdasi from Saudi Arabia, who normally officiates in the Zain Saudi Professional League. Let's all hope for a drama-free Group stage, where we hardly notice the match officials at all. That would be a nice surprise. The match commissioners, who effectively control match-days are from China and Chinese Taipei.

Without the support of the following sponsors, it would've been a tough ask for Phnom Penh Crown to foot the bill for this week's AFC President's Cup games. The AFC provide the host club/Federation with a tidy sum of money but it doesn't cover all the costs in staging the competition proper. At the Olympic Stadium for the five matches being played there, sponsors Canon and Smart will have their own booths with special offers for the football fans. Also providing much-needed sponsorship are 855Crown Hotel & Resort, Askap Gold Investment Company, Diamond Hotel (who will host the Crown squad), Golddragon gold dealership, That Hay Telecoms as well as Mega, Cambodia's latest ISP. Football followers at the Olympic Stadium will be entertained by hip-hop dancers during breaks in play, whilst a lucky draw will be made on the final day of competition.

The latest commercial spot

This is the TV Commercial Spot for the upcoming AFC President's Cup competition involving Phnom Penh Crown. The matches will be played on 5, 7 and 9 May at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh. All PPCFC matches will be screened live by TV5 television channel.

Follow the rules

Yien Kivatanak - waiting for the penny to drop in more ways than one

Sad to report that defender Hang Chantrea, whilst playing for Kirivong against Phnom Penh Crown on Sunday, sustained a broken right leg six minutes before the end of the game when he was involved in a accidental collision of legs between his own goalkeeper Kem Makara and Crown striker Kingsley Njoku. He was taken from the ground in an ambulance. The match referee for the game was Yien Kivatank, a referee I must admit I have little time for amongst the Cambodians who officiate at C-League matches. I have documented before his ineptitude on repeated occasions in how he handles situations in matches. He's very card-happy for starters and this is mainly because he has never played the game at a good standard and so fails to understand the game he's trying to control. Take the Kirivong game as an example. Kirivong were leading early on and from that moment used every trick in the book to waste time. Any free-kick awarded to Crown saw one or two opponents stand on the ball to not allow a quick free-kick to be taken. In each case, it took the referee about a minute before he shooed them away. It got so annoying for Crown defender Tieng Tiny that he man-handled one Kirivong player out of the way, only for the referee to reprimand him (instead of the player who failed to retreat 10 yards) and then flash a yellow card. This will now mean that Tiny misses the next C-League game against the Army having accumulated his 2nd yellow card, thanks to Kivatanak's failure to adhere to the policy of making players retreat from free-kicks, and under the Federation's ludicrous disciplinary rule of two yellows = a 1-match suspension. I know that under tournament rules like the AFC President's Cup, two yellows means a one-game suspension but for the same rule to be adopted for a domestic league competition is simply mind-boggling, like so many Federation decisions. 
With the AFC President's Cup taking up the Olympic Stadium this coming weekend, four C-League matches have been moved to the Amy Stadium instead. And with Phnom Penh Crown involved in RHB Singapore Cup action on Wednesday 16 May in Singapore against current champions Tampines Rovers, their C-League match against the Army has been rescheduled for a 2.30pm slot on Wednesday 30 May at Olympic Stadium.

Good practice

The Cambodian national U-14 team. This line-up is all-PPCFC except the keeper.

Sunday morning saw the Cambodian national team at U-14 level play the third of their practice matches as they prepare to travel to Malaysia for an AFC Festival of Football from 21 May until 3 June. Leading the national team is Phnom Penh Crown's Academy coach Bouy Dary and with wins over the U-14s of Prek Kdam and Prek Pra, he took his squad of 28 players to play the U-16s of Preah Khan Reach at their Kambol training ground. A stiff test for his youngsters against boys with much bigger physique and age on their side. That didn't deter the U-14s though, with the majority of the squad, eighteen in fact, coming from Dary's own team, the Crown Academy, and they are afraid of no-one. PKR took the lead in the first minute catching the keeper out with a lobbed shot over his head though that was all the scoring in the first of three thirty-minute halves. Playing an all-Crown team aside from the keeper in the 2nd half, the national team kept PKR pinned back in their own half and for lots of the time, in their own box, but without managing a breakthrough. Would you know it, but PKR lobbed the keeper again at the start of the third half and the only reply the national team could finally muster was a penalty by Ouk Sovann after Long Phearath was fouled late on. Dary was happy with the work-out against a physically-bigger team. PKR certainly take no prisoners and have developed a hard streak in all of their age-group teams, which earned them a couple of yellow cards in this match. At this age level it's a feature of their game that is very unattractive. They might say, you do what you do to win games, but at early teen ages surely it's better to play the game properly instead of relying on elbows, ankle-taps and shirt-pulling. I know how I like to see the youngsters playing the beautiful game and it's the Crown Academy way. After the game we retired to the bus laid-on by the football federation and the inside was awash with swarms of mosquitoes. I've never seen so many mosquitoes in one place before. If that wasn't bad enough, a mile down the road the cranky bus conked out and we were left on the side of the road, fifteen kilometres from town. We had to flag down a fleet of tuk-tuks and motodops to get back home. The federation strikes again. Helping Dary with the U-14s are his two assistants, Long Rithea (from the Army) and Ouk Mic (PKR), who until this season was the country's first-choice senior goalkeeper. Crown don't actually have a keeper in their Academy - it's a specialist position, so it was decided to do without one, with a couple of the boys always willing to don the gloves in matches. Three of the Crown Academy team were not included in the national set-up as they are younger than the others and will be eligible to play for the team next season, while Phoeun Sopheak is recovering from his knee injury.

The starting line-up for the first-half, includes six PPCFC boys

National coach Bouy Dary issuing team tactics

Ouk Sovann fires in a penalty kick to make it 2-1

Bouy Dary talking to his squad of players before the match begins

Two of the PPCFC contingent, Vat Samnang and Kim Chhaya

Some of the boys trying to avoid the scorching sun

After-match

Coach David Booth addresses his players. Pic Masayori Ishikawa.

Phnom Penh Crown head coach David Booth was not a happy man after watching his team lose 3-1 to Kirivong on Sunday afternoon at Olympic Stadium. The dressing room was in stunned silence as the players trooped back in after the final whistle. These are the coach's immediate after-match comments: "We were very poor in the 1st half. We missed chances, I don't know how many times we hit the post and bar. I never thought we were going to score and I was surprised when it actually went in. It's hard to explain, it's just not what we have been doing, what we do, the way we train, the way we work. Why was that performance like that? I actually have no idea.
We improved a little bit in the 2nd half, but not a lot. Again, look at the chances we had in the 2nd half, maybe six or seven, not one went in, they either just missed the post or went straight at the goalie. While they had three chances and scored three goals. Out of more than ten chances, we scored one. Not good enough. There's no excuse for the way we played, we played badly today.
Tomorrow we'll get them back together and sort out why we played like this.We need to analyse, sit back and look at what happened, and make sure it doesn't happen again. It certainly doesn't augur well for the President's Cup. We needed a good performance to take into that., We didn't get it. We know that any performance like that next week and we'll be dead and buried. When you look at our team, they are all national players, ex-national players and foreign players - lots of experience - but it simply didn't work for us today.
With the experience we have in the team, they've got to see the danger before it happens. We told them all the correct things before the game but they just stood and watched them score the first goal. There is no excuse."

Meeting deadlines

A sneak look at the PPCFC team photo in the new Year Book

Be prepared for lots of footy stuff this week as there's a rather large competition taking place in Phnom Penh and I'll be taking a few days off work as I'm heavily involved as the press officer for Phnom Penh Crown. We have a television commercial coming out any minute now, that will be blasted all over the Cambodian television channels to raise awareness amongst the football-loving public, especially as it has a prize draw and entertainment in the form of hip-hop bands at the games, etc. A sure way to attract the attention of Khmer youths. Give them a few free phone calls as well and they'll be your friend for life. No Preap Sovath this time around though.  I've just finished writing a new 2012 Year Book for Phnom Penh Crown and that will be printed and distributed by the end of this week as well. This edition will be in English but we'expect to have a Khmer translation sometime soon. There will be a lot more going on too, with a major press conference this Friday when everyone and their dog from the media will be present. The opposition teams will be arriving this week ahead of the first matches on Saturday. The media covered our first press conference on Saturday morning, to officially announce the tournament and the picture below is from Sabay.com.

Phnom Penh Crown finally have someone to hold the video camera during games and then edit the highlights for our footy matches. Amandeep Singh is from India and he got in touch to offer his services a couple of weeks ago. He's in Cambodia as the country manager of an NGO and obviously loves football. He spent seven hours editing the first highlights video of our match against BBU, so he must love football. He made a good fist of the match against BBU and we are now planning on having video highlights on the club's official website from now on. Well, for as long as Aman has the time to video and then edit his handiwork. We've been looking for a videographer for the past year. They are like gold-dust. You can watch the BBU highlights on the website at http://www.phnompenhcrownfc.com. When we get hold of the television commercial, we'll post that as well.

We look like a line-up of convicts rather than a footy club's backroom team

Weekend round-up

NagaCorp ran out easy 8-1 winners over Chhlam Samuth

Not enough hours in the day to post everything I should be posting. Take the football results from this weekend for example. Usually I try and get them online as quickly after the matches as I can. No such luck this weekend. It's now Monday afternoon and I still haven't found a spare minute to post them. Ah, here's that spare minute afterall. So who played who on Saturday? The first Metfone C-League match saw BBU meet the Army, with no foreign players on either side. I was very bored watching the game, the only highlight of which was a Pich Sina goal with five minutes to go that gave BBU a 1-nil success. In the 2nd game, NagaCorp dismantled Chhlam Samuth into tiny pieces and ran out very easy 8-1 victors. Choun Chum, he of the quick feet and name-change before the season started, netted a personal tally of 4 goals to take him to the top of the scorer's chart with 11 for the season. He could've scored more truth be known, but I'm sure he's happy with four, including a penalty, for which he was fouled. Om Thavrak rattled in the first after 3 minutes and there was no looking back after that. Kenneth Nwafor, mostly found sitting in front of his back-four, strode forward to head a rare goal, Sun Sovannrithy also scored, as did Teab Vathanak. Chhlam Samuth changed their keeper just after half-time but it made no difference as Chum put a hat-trick of goals past him in sixteen minutes. Ros Samoeun netted a late consolation effort. Naga went to the top of the table on goal difference above National Police. Phnom Penh Crown are in 3rd spot.


Sunday saw the shock of the weekend when Kirivong dealt Phnom Penh Crown a body blow, winning 3-1 despite Crown having the lion's share of possession, goal chances (more than 20 that I counted) and a corner-kick count of 11-2 in their favour. They did everything but score (until the last kick), and of course, they didn't keep a clean-sheet at the other end either. Kirivong must've thought Christmas had come early. In the second game, Boeung Ket will be cursing themselves and just about everyone else at not holding onto a half-time lead. Friday Nwakuna gave them a 2-goal headstart after 35 minutes, with two strikes within two minutes of each other. The first was a header, the second a glorious interchange of passes with Keo Sokngorn. Preah Khan twice hit the bar in the 1st half so were always in the game and so it proved later on. Nwakuna also hit the woodwork and missed a couple of other very presentable chances in the 2nd half. Khuon Laboravy poked in to reduce the deficit on 71 minutes and Boeung Ket keeper Peng Bunchhay made a few neat saves to keep his team ahead until a massive blunder by the custodian with just three minutes to go. Prak Mony Udom hit a 25-yarder more in hope than in anger and the grubber deceived Bunchhay who failed to get down to it, and 2-2 was the final result. Honours even and a good game to boot.

BBU will be cock-a-hoop with their 1-0 win over the Army after a bad start

Scratching their heads

PPCFC v Kirivong. Back Row LtoR: Tiny, Dara, Frimpong, Sovan, Tarley, Ary. Front: Njoku, Rady, Suhana, Sokumpheak, Borey

How the heck did Phnom Penh Crown lose to Kirivong? On the number of chances alone, we should've put the game beyond doubt by half-time. We didn't, we found it impossible to hit the back of the bleedin' net and paid a very high price for three defensive lapses. We are not exactly making a good fist of defending our championship crown this season. This 3-1 reversal to Kirivong, who were thumped 4-0 by Chhlam Samuth in their last outing, was a shock, no two ways about it, and was precisely the exact opposite of the result we were seeking, going into next week's AFC President's Cup. It can work two way, it will act as a kick of the backside for all concerned, or it will come back to haunt us in a few ways. Anyway, back to this afternoon's 2.30pm kick-off.

A one-match suspension for central defender Odion Obadin required a few changes to the Phnom Penh Crown starting line-up against lowly Kirivong, with Chan Dara coming in at full-back and Melvin Tarley recalled alongside Kingsley Njoku in attack. Crown were in confident mode having won their previous three Metfone C-League matches but found themselves a goal down after just three minutes. A hopeful punt forward caught the Crown defence flat-footed and Mohamed Zaky outpaced Tieng Tiny before slipping his shot neatly past Yok Ary. Ten minutes later it required quick reactions from Ary to deny Ishola Abiding after he broke away rather too easily from Sok Sovan's shackles. Kingsley Njoku and Kouch Sokumpheak attempted to draw level soon after, both firing narrowly wide from the edge of the penalty box with powerful drives as Crown began to find their feet.

Emmanuel Frimpong is fast earning a reputation for his free-kicks and on 26 minutes his 22-yarder was too hot to handle for Kirivong keeper Kem Makara though the rebound evaded three onrushing Crown attackers and bounced to safety. Sos Suhana was next to try his luck after he jinked his way to the bye-line but his shot was blocked by Makara at the near post. A Khim Borey corner somehow managed to evade everyone in the six-yard box and as the first half drew to a close, Crown squandered two more guilt-edge opportunities. A minute before the break, Njoku weaved past two defenders on the byeline and his pull-back to Melvin Tarley had goal written all over it, but the Liberian striker took too long to pull the trigger and the chance was taken off his toe. With the referee just about to blow for half-time, Sokumpheak laid the ball into the path of Tarley and this time his thunderous shot cannoned off the frame of the goal and away from danger. Kirivong were fortunate to remain ahead at the break.

Kirivong's half-time substitute Egyptian Rada Badry announced his arrival by lashing a shot against the upright after six minutes but for much of the second half it was one-way traffic as Crown went in search of an equalizer. Njoku's lay-off header allowed Sokumpheak room for a half volley which Kem Makara was equal to with a smart one-handed save to his right. Tiny and Suhana were wasteful with off-target headers before Tarley looked to have cashed in on a fumble by Makara, but blasted the loose ball clear of the cross-bar. Borey and Sokumpheak combined, only for the Crown skipper to volley his opportunity into row Z. On the hour, Njoku robbed Ouk Thon and raced goalwards but his attempted chip over the onrushing Makara missed the goalframe by a foot. A deft touch was definitely missing today. The catalogue of near misses continued when Njoku fed Suhana as he broke into the area, only to see his shot deflected onto the post by Makara's foot. Njoku tried an ambitious overhead kick and Borey screwed a Suhana pass over the top from fifteen yards out. On 78 minutes, Crown struck the woodwork again when Ouk Sothy's free header rebounded off the cross-bar. It just wasn't Crown's day as Sokumpheak's power-header went straight into the hands of Kem Makara and his long dropkick found Em Phanna in acres of space in the Crown half with nine minutes to go. Yok Ary thought better of rushing out of his area and was caught back-pedaling by Phanna who spotted him off his line and lobbed the ball into the net. It was a kick in the guts for Crown who'd been camped in the Kirivong half for the previous forty minutes.

As the final minutes ticked by, Sokumpheak had a shot blocked, Sothy screwed a good chance wide and Njoku's diving header missed the far post by inches. To add insult to injury in the fourth minute of time added on, Sok Sovan dallied on the ball instead of clearing his lines, Phanna got a touch and instantly whipped his low shot past Ary. With the last kick, actually header, of the game Ouk Sothy netted a consolation for Crown in the 96th minute, benefitting from Njoku's touch to Frimpong's free-kick. But it was too little too late as Crown finished the match scratching their heads over their numerous missed opportunities and defensive lapses that cost them so dearly.
PPCFC line-up: Ary, Rady, Dara (Sothy 76), Tiny, Sovan, Frimpong, Suhana, Borey (H Pheng 76), Njoku, Tarley (S Pheng 68), Sokumpheak.Subs not used: Chamrouen, Vanthan, Lika, Sophanal, Seyha, Sovanna, Chaya, Makara. Bookings: Rady, S Pheng, Tiny.

Kouch Sokumpheak smiles in the players tunnel

Under the new electronic scoreboard, the Crown team get final instructions