Thierry chooses Crown

Thierry Bin joins PPCFC

Phnom Penh Crown have been busy this week. Three days of open trials have occupied the attentions of head coach Sam Schweingruber and his coaching staff, but he still found time to agree to the release of four more players from last season's playing squad, and to waste no time in capturing a new face, that will, he hopes, light up the Metfone C-League next season. His name is Thierry Bin, or Bin Thierry, as the Khmers put the surname first. The son of Battambang-born Khmer parents, he was born in Paris and has been playing in France all of his life, he's 21 years old, but starred on the recent visit of the European Khmer team, and will now try his luck in Cambodia. He was being courted by Boeung Ket and Kirivong but decided on Crown as his final destination. He will make the move to Phnom Penh from Paris this weekend and arrives here on Monday. The reaction from football fans has been very positive, especially after he caught the imagination whilst playing on the Khmer-Europe XI tour a couple of months ago, scoring from a direct free-kick against Crown in particular, which will be remembered by many. As a youngster, he was at the RC Strasbourg academy and played for the Paris District U-14s and the France U-16 national team before spells at FC Saint-Jean-Le-Blanc and Aubervilliers. He's a natural left-footed midfield player who can also play up front. As for the players released by the club, and announced today, they include current national team defender Tieng Tiny, who's been with the club for the past 4 years and is one of the most experienced players in the country. Also on their way out are Chan Dara, another former national team defender, and midfielders Chhun Sovanna and Koem Sophanal.

Warm-ups

3 PPCFC players, Khim Borey (left), Tieng Tiny and Sos Suhana, fly out to join the main squad. Pic courtesy of Khim Borey

The Cambodian national team are in their final stretch of preparations for the AFF Suzuki Cup qualification matches which begin this Friday when they meet Timor Leste in Myanmar, one of four matches in a space of a week that will determine their immediate future, in coach Hok Sochetra's first big test of his reign. On Saturday, minus the Phnom Penh Crown trio of Khim Borey, Tieng Tiny and Sos Suhana, the Cambodian squad drew 3-3 with Courts Young Lions, the feeder team for the Singapore U-23s side. The visiting national team goals came from Prak Mony Udom, Phoung Soksana and Teab Vathanak, after the Young Lions led 2-1 at half-time. Tomorrow they will be back in Malaysia, where they've had a two-week training camp, to play a final warm-up against a Malaysian team and then they will head to Myanmar for their moment of truth. It's not clear which team the Malaysians will play, their senior side or their U-23s, as the main squad are preparing for their own Suzuki Cup involvement in November with matches against Hong Kong and Vietnam. The three Phnom Penh Crown players flew out to join the national squad at noon today, after returning in the early hours from their AFC President's Cup trip to Tajikistan. Cambodia begin their Suzuki Cup qualifiers against Timor Leste on Friday and then meet Laos (7 Oct), Brunei (9 Oct) and Myanmar (11 Oct).

An encouraging stalemate

The Phnom Penh Crown trio who started for Cambodia tonight. LtoR Tieng Tiny, Sos Suhana, Khim Borey

Hok Sochetra's Cambodian team must be congratulated for not conceding against an international opponent some 38 places above them in the FIFA world rankings. That in itself is no mean feat and add to that the fact that the Philippines have been in overseas training camp and are playing a glut of friendly matches, and Cambodia did pretty well in what was their first serious game in over a year. Admittedly, not too much was seen from Cambodia in an offensive capacity and Philippines held the upper hand for spells during tonight's match, but there wasn't too much to choose between the two teams and let's not forget that the Philippines are already through to the final stages of the AFF Suzuki Cup and are ranked the third best team in Southeast Asia, whilst Cambodia must play in the Suzuki Cup qualifiers next month. The game ended 0-0 in front of a sizeable crowd at Olympic Stadium tonight.
With a five-man midfield and Khim Borey playing in a withdrawn lone striker role, Cambodia began cautiously, inviting the opposition to break them down. Phil Younghusband shouldn't done exactly that on 13 minutes when Om Thavrak missed his clearing header and the former Chelsea-man fluffed his chance from fifteen yards out. Ten minutes later Jason Sabio headed powerfully against the crossbar from a corner but that was pretty much it as far as the Philippines had to offer in the first-half. With Cambodia relying on the counter-attack, Borey sent a slide-rule pass through to Sos Suhana on the half-hour but he was tackled as he was about to pull the trigger. Borey was booked for handball from the resulting corner. And that was it for obvious opportunities in the opening 45 minutes.
Three minutes on from the restart and Suhana repaid the compliment, sending Borey clear of the last defender but his hurried left-foot swinger went straight to keeper Neil Etheridge, a 1st-team squad regular with BPL team Fulham. On the hour, Etheridge boobed badly with a miss-kick but Suhana didn't react quickly enough and the goalkeeper recovered. Both teams made a series of substitutions but it was Cambodia's Sou Yaty who was the busiest goalkeeper, keeping out a couple of efforts and fisting away some high crosses. Pouring rain spoilt the spectacle for both players and fans for the final quarter and the last chance of note went to Philippines, when Patrick Reichelt evaded three defensive lunges but held his head as his low drive rebounded off the foot of the post to safety, with just two minutes to go.
I think Hok Sochetra will be pleased that his charges kept a clean sheet in his first game. If you don't concede, you don't lose. With Sou Yaty in good form and determined to punch any cross that came his way, the old guard of Thavrak and Tieng Tiny marshalled the center of defence and negated the threat posed by the Younghusband brothers. With five packing midfield, that left Borey with a tough solo job to do up front and he found it hard to hold onto the ball against a strong Philippines back-four. Sochetra will need to be more adventurous if he expects to progress through the qualifying games next month, but a goal-less draw with the fancied Philippines is a good start.
Cambodia line-up: Yaty, Pancharong, Vibol (S Pheng 94), Thavrak (Piseth 82), Tiny, Sothearath, Sopanha (S Udom 94), Suhana (Khemarin 94 ), Sokngorn (Saray 71), PM Udom (Vathanak 65), Borey (Chhoeun 84). Subs not used: Ratana, Vichet, Raksmey, Chum, Phearith, Veasna, Sothearoth. Bookings: Borey, Tiny.

The starting line-up for Cambodia. Back LtoR: PM Udom, Thavrak, Yaty, Sokngorn, Tiny, Sopanha (capt). Front: Vibol, Sothearath, Suhana, Pancharong, Borey. Click to enlarge.

Tieng Tiny

Regarded as one of his country's best defenders for the last few years, Tieng Tiny has been a regular for the Cambodia national team since his international debut in 2006. He joined Crown in 2008 after a season with Naga Corp, having previously signed on with Khemara and Phnom Penh Empire.

Name: Tieng Tiny
Position: Central Defender
Squad Number: 4
Date of birth: 9 June 1986
Place of birth: Boeung Daun Pa, Siem Reap
Height: 1.78m
Weight: 71kg
Joined PPCFC: November 2008
Previous clubs: Siem Reap province, Khemara Keila, Phnom Penh Empire, Naga Corp, Cambodia U-23 & Seniors.

In Conversation with...

Kouch Sokumpheak

The Phnom Penh Crown Yearbook for 2011 includes an interview with two of the team's most highly-rated players, Kouch Sokumpheak and Tieng Tiny. Here's the interview.

In Conversation with.... Kouch Sokumpheak and Tieng Tiny

Kouch Sokumpheak is widely touted as Cambodia’s most talented footballer of his generation, whilst Tieng Tiny is rated as the best homegrown defender in the country, and both players play for Phnom Penh Crown. We caught up with the duo during a break from training with the national team to find out a little more about them.

For the record, Sokumpheak, now 23 years old, is one of five siblings and was born in Porbakor village in the heart of Kompong Thom town. He’s played football for as long as he can remember, coming to prominence for the Kompong Thom provincial team whilst still at Hun Sen Balaing High School. Spotted by Khemara Keila manager/coach Lah Salakhan during a match played in Kratie, he made the journey down to Phnom Penh and earned a place in the Khemara line-up immediately. His Crown and international teammate Tieng Tiny is a year older and hails from Boeung Daun Pa village in Siem Reap. One of six children, he was snapped up by his provincial team when he was just fifteen and attending 10 Makara High School. He too was a target of Lah Salakhan’s scouting network and was invited to join Khemara.

2006 was a memorable milestone year for both players. They were part of the Khemara side that captured the Championship Trophy, beating Phnom Penh United 5-4 in the play-off final. They also earned a call-up into Cambodia’s AFC Challenge Cup national team squad and made their first appearances against Bangladesh in Dhaka in April of that year. The following year, the two players parted company, with Sokumpheak remaining at Khemara, as he would until he signed on for Crown a few months ago. Meanwhile, Tiny joined up with Phnom Penh Empire for a year and then a less than successful season with Naga Corp before moving to Phnom Penh Crown in 2009. Both players remained integral members of the Cambodian national team, as they are today.

Sokumpheak, with a league title and a Hun Sen Cup Final success in his locker, was the epitome of loyalty as he remained with Khemara, despite the club’s waning fortunes. “I have great respect and gratitude towards Lah Salakhan, as well as enjoying the camaraderie we had at Khemara,” he said. It kept him there until he was finally persuaded to leave in November 2010, joining Crown ahead of the current new season. Tiny was already with Crown, as they captured the Metfone C-League Championship and just failed to land the Hun Sen Cup last term.

Both players will have important roles for Crown this season. Tiny’s main task will be to marshall the defence, whilst Sokumpheak will be expected to get amongst the goals, as he did for Khemara in the last two editions of the Hun Sen Cup, claiming the Golden Boot award twice in succession, with 21 and 18 goals respectively. The striker was full of praise for his new coach at Crown, Bojan Hodak. “Bojan is very good, he understands the game and he encourages us all of the time.” Tiny agreed. “I like his knowledge and methods of defence, and he’s teaching me new tricks as a defender. We are also physically stronger than before,” he explained. Sokumpheak added; “Crown are much more professional than other clubs. Their coaching methods, food, training equipment, facilities and higher wages, all make a real difference to the players.”

We’ve already heard that Lah Salakhan assumed the role of mentor for Sokumpheak whilst he was at Khemara, though the striker also counts Scott O’Donell as one of his best influences, during his spell in charge of the national team. “Scott gave us great advice, trained us hard and helped us adopt a much more professional attitude.” Tiny echoed his colleague’s views and found that O’Donell, a central defender himself, helped his game by sharing his own experiences. Both players have also been impressed with the current Cambodian coach, South Korean, Lee Tae-Hoon.

It was clear the two players regard each other as good friends as well as teammates. They replied in unison to tell me that playing abroad was not on their list of priorities, as being away from family and friends wasn’t something they were keen on, whilst stepping into a coaching role, once their playing days are over, is definitely something they will consider. When asked about representing Cambodia in international football, Tiny remarked; “I’m proud to play for my country, it makes me happy, I get to visit many other countries, I get exposure to new things, my experience improves and I become a better player.” Sokumpheak concurred; “I am very proud to wear my country’s jersey and to show our flag abroad. It makes me very happy. Football is a good job and a good career and playing for Cambodia is something I enjoy immensely.”

The future of Cambodian football was the final topic of discussion. Tiny remarked; “I think former players should train the next generation as they know the game and can pass on their knowledge and experiences. Foreign coaches help a lot too, with good explanations, good ideas on training and food, methods of playing and treatment of injuries.” For Sokumpheak, he believes the football federation can play a more significant role in youth development. “I’m a believer that the federation should support the accommodation, study, food and training of the younger players, so they can focus clearly on their football and not be distracted. I also feel that clubs should assist players to find jobs after their football careers are finished, so they can concentrate 100% on football whilst they are playing.” Both Sokumpheak and Tiny are a long way from the end of their careers as they embark on their first season playing alongside each other at Phnom Penh Crown. It promises to be an exciting year ahead for both.

Tieng Tiny