Saturday, August 1, 2015

Crown arrested by Police

Sunday 2 August 2015: Phnom Penh Crown 1 National Police 1 (Metfone C-League).
Crown dropped points for only the second time this season this afternoon in the rain-delayed match-up between the 2nd and 3rd-placed teams in the Metfone C-League at the RSN Stadium. After yesterday’s first 25 minutes was ended by torrential rain, today’s main talking point came on 64 minutes when Police scored against the run of play. Noun Borey was coming back from an offside position when he obstructed Kok Boris, allowing Yuske Ishi a free run on goal to score. No-one in Crown colours could believe the match officials allowed the goal to stand. Five minutes later Crown were level when Bin Thierry’s inswinging free-kick was headed firmly past his own goalkeeper by a diving Busayo Adekunjo for an own goal. Va Sokthorn, Thierry and George Bisan went close but despite Crown’s pressure, the game ended all-square. In the 25 minutes of play at RSN Stadium yesterday, Va Sokthorn had a chance cleared off the line, Sary Matnorotin crashed a drive against the goal post and Police keeper Prak Phearun twice saved at close range from George Bisan and Leng Makara before the heavy rain made further play impossible.
Head coach Sam Schweingruber gave his after-match views on the 1-1 draw with National Police. “I told my team yesterday and today, there are no excuses. I knew the rain would affect the game, if you want to be champions, there are no excuses. We have to play better than this, we have to be at a better level. That the referee has a very poor game – there are no excuses.
Yesterday I thought we started shocking, were caught napping and in gaga-land. But from 5-25 minutes we played excellent football and did a lot of things we wanted to do and it worked for us. So I felt confident for today. For the 20 minutes before half-time we were in complete control, apart from giving away too many free-kicks. I thought the games was all ours, then the rain came again. I think we did a good job in trying to keep the ball. But I was not impressed with a lot of performances today. This was not a good game for us, and we have to blame ourselves.
The Police goal was a huge mistake by the referee. We made lots of mistakes, so did the referee – his mistake cost us a goal, our mistakes cost us goals too. It’s very disappointing that he didn’t see the situation – clearly an offside player interfering with play by obstructing a defender tracking back. A smart move by Borey, he managed to cheat a goal and the referee didn’t get it. We were lucky that our loss of discipline didn’t end up in defeat. The way we reacted to the goal is usually a recipe for disaster. So seeing how angry we were, in that sense, I’m glad we got a point.
We dominated for 90 minutes, both yesterday and again today. We weren’t clinical enough but we were the better team and the only team that wanted to win the game. My job now is to see this as a wake-up call, we need to evaluate our performance and to understand why we were at the level today that is not enough to be champions.”

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