Crown hit five to win

PPCFC, back row, LtoR: Boris, Tola, Boran, Soksela, Obadin, Pheng. Front Row: Borey, Da, Soseka, Sokumpheak, Sothy

Result: PPCFC 5 San Siro XI 3 (Friendly).
The second match of Saturday afternoon at RSN Stadium saw a stronger Phnom Penh Crown side take on the San Siro African XI and it turned out to be an up-tempo, hard fought game, which Crown won 5-3. With Yok Ary out injured and Sou Yaty away on international duty, Keo Soksela was between the posts for Crown and the youngster made a schoolboy mistake to give San Siro a third minute lead. He allowed Degule Momoh's hopeful punt to bounce past him and couldn't recover in time before it ended up in the net. Crown drew level on 11 minutes as Kouch Sokumpheak's bye-line run was ended with a handball and Khim Borey cheekily chipped in his penalty spot-kick for the equaliser. Four minutes later and Borey, in acres of free space, slotted in Touch Sokheng's inch-perfect pass to put Crown ahead. On 44 minutes Crown extended their lead as Sokumpheak spotted Hong Pheng on the overlap and his low cross was turned in at the far post by Leng Makara. Former Crown striker Kingsley Njoku turned and fired home a minute before the break to reduce the deficit and Soksela was called upon to make a good save, low down, to thwart the opposition. He was again in the right place to deny Njoku before Momoh unleashed one of his trademark rocket shots through a crowd of players, seven minutes into the 2nd half to make it 3-3. Crown waited just two minutes before they got their noses back in front, as Borey and Sokumpheak set up Makara, who chested the ball down and fired home. They made it five, three minutes later as Long Boran anticipated a pass-back header falling short, and sneaked in to steer the ball home. Liam Hutchinson's long raking passes kept catching out the San Siro back-line and from one of them, Ngoy Srin poked his shot across the face of goal. Ly Morslim was an inch away from connecting to Makara's center and in the final seconds, Pheng surged into the box but screwed his shot wide of the far post.
PPCFC v San Siro: Soksela, Da (Srin 59), Pheng, Boris, Obadin, Sothy (Morslim 83), Sokumpheak, Sosela (Makara 36), Boran (Sosela 79), Tola (Sokheng 11 (Hutchinson 46)), Borey. Bookings: None. MOTM: Obadin. Goals: Borey 2 (11,15), Makara 2 (44, 54), Boran (57).

San Siro XI squad photo