Over the moon

Odion Obadin (blue), my MOTM today, tussles with Abahani's Ibrahim Awudu. Photo: FFC, Tep Phany

I am over the moon. Phnom Penh Crown stood firm and did the business today, when it mattered. A win would secure qualification to the final stage of the AFC President's Cup, and though it was tight, a win is exactly what we got. Chan Chaya was johnny-on-the-spot from close range 11 minutes from time, to net the all-important winning goal which saw the whole stadium erupt with relief and unbridled joy. More from this fabulous event later, when I've caught my breath. I'm still scraping myself off the ceiling. Crown join Neftchi in already booking their place in the final round with two wins from two games, after the Kyrgyzstan champions beat Don Bosco from Sri Lanka 2-0 in the early kick-off.

Let battle resume

The excitement begins again today with the next round of games in Group A of the AFC President's Cup. In the early kick-off at 1.30pm, Neftchi from Kyrgyzstan will have the upper hand over the Don Bosco team from Sri Lanka, with a mix of old heads and youngsters in the Kyrgyz team having too much know-how and talent for the Sri Lankans. 29-year-old Pavel Pavlov proved a handful for Abahani on Saturday, netting one of Neftchi's goals in their 2-0 success, while twenty-year old Marat Adzhiniiazov will be hoping lightning strikes twice, after his stunning 30-yard strike opened the scoring in the first game. I expect Neftchi to book their place as one of the two qualifiers from Group A today.
However, all Cambodian eyes will be on the second match at 4pm to see whether Phnom Penh Crown can repeat their deserved success from Saturday. In a confident display, they comfortably beat Don Bosco 3-0 to send the thousands in the stadium into raptures and set up an intriguing match this afternoon. Their opponents are Abahani, who despite losing to Neftchi, looked strong in defence and up front, Ibrahim Awudu, will be a key player. If he performs well, Crown will need to be on their mettle to contain him. For Crown, players like Kouch Sokumpheak, Kingsley Njoku and Chan Chaya will need to perform as well as they did on Saturday to test the Abahani defence. After their first game success, expectation is high amongst the Cambodian public for more Crown success.

Crown's Kingsley Njoku asks to hear the crowd after he scored the 1st goal on Saturday. Photo: Tep Phany, FFC.

Kingsley Njoku in action against Don Bosco on Saturday. Photo: Tep Phany, FFC

And finally...

The Crown players watch the first match of the competition from the grandstand

And there's more. Another batch of photographs from yesterday's first round of matches at the Olympic Stadium in the AFC President's Cup. As well as the match action on the pitch - which was looking the best I've ever seen it - there was a live concert between the two games and then again after the final whistle. The stage action featured the excellent youth band Cartoon Emo and the country's favourite rapper Pou Khlaing, as well as some dancers and other performers. The Phnom Penh Crown victory was broadcast live across the country by the TVK and Bayon 1 television channels, as will their remaining two games on Monday and Wednesday.

Coach Bojan Hodak keeps an eye on the pre-match warm-up

Last few liquids in the tunnel before the game begins for the Crown players

The main grandstand is packed to the rafters immediately before the Crown match

The Don Bosco team from Sri Lanka had no answer to Crown's threat throughout the game

Referee Tseytlin from Uzbek is asking for the sun to be turned off before the game begins

Pou Khlaing rapping at the pitchside concert

Pou Khlaing (red shirt) and fellow rapper take a break between songs

More for Pou Khlaing and his dancing girls in Crown shirts

The excellent Cartoon Emo performing after the matches ended

And finally...some very shapely dancers and singers take to the stage

More from day 1

The calm before the storm. An empty Olympic Stadium 2 hours before kick-off.

Just to give you a flavour of day 1 of the AFC President's Cup matches at the Olympic Stadium, here are a few photographs over the next two posts.

A roadside banner sitting outside the stadium

The Neftchi team applaud the crowd before their game begins

The Abahani Limited FC (Bangladesh) line-up for their 1st game. They lost 2-0.

The match commentators, Hor Ngait and Khim Vuthy and cameraman get in on the celebratory mood wearing their Crown colours

The Abahani coach Ali Akbar was more concerned about a 1 minute water-break by the referee than the 2-0 defeat

Neftchi coach Alexander Krestinin with his translator at the post-match press conference

Don Bosco's former national team coach Sampath Perera muses on his team's 3-0 reverse against Crown

Glory for the Academy

Captain Pheurn Sopheak lifts the trophy to the delight of his teammates

The Phnom Penh Crown Academy youngsters were in the mood to rise to the occasion of the Barclays Capital Indochina Starfish Boys Championship finals this morning, after watching the first-team perform so well yesterday at the Olympic Stadium. As usual all the boys had joined the big crowd in the main grandstand, with their horns, drums and flags, to support their heroes and cheer them onto victory. This morning, it was their turn for glory and they took the opportunity with both hands. The U/14 boys championship final was between Crown and Kumar Takhmao, after Crown defeated their arch rivals Preah Khan Reach a week ago in the semi-final. The nine-player starting line-up contained eight of the Academy youngsters, with goalkeeper Keo Soksela the odd one out. The others lining up were Orn Chanpolin, Pheurn Sopheak, Pech Sovanarath, Pov Bunvuthy, En Sodavid, Ken Chansopheak, Mat Saravy and Yue Muslim. The rest of the squad was made up of non-Academy players. Goals from Saravy and Bunvuthy gave them a 2-1 half-time lead as they again demonstrated their passing prowess and recovery powers. Second-half goals from Sodavid, Bunvuthy and substitute Se Sokheng put their plucky opponents to the sword as Crown ran out 5-1 winners and collected the U/14 Boys Championship trophy. Crown president Rithy Samnang and top striker Kouch Sokumpheak were on the touchlines to watch the youngsters collect their first trophy for the club. In one of the other finals played this morning, the Crown U/17s lost 3-0 to the Preah Khan Reach team. The next important fixture for the Academy boys will be a visit to Singapore at the end of June for the Singapore 6's tournament for eleven of the youngsters, with the other eleven visiting Ho Chi Minh the following week for a series of games and training, as part of their ongoing program of development.

The starting line-up. Back Row LtoR: Sovanarath, Chanpolin, Soksela, Sopheak, Saravy. Front Row: Chansopheak, Sodavid, Muslim, Bunvuthy.

A proud Ken Chansopheak with the Barclays Capital championship trophy and his medal

The winning U/14 squad with their coaches, Kao Kiry and Bouy Dary

Everyone loves winning trophies and this is the first since the Academy began

Head coach Bouy Dary gives the youngsters some half-time pointers

Up and running

Neftchi's Marat Adzhiniiazov gave the President's Cup a great start with a wonder strike from 30 yards

The AFC President's Cup got off to a flying start on day 1 yesterday. The main highlight of course was Phnom Penh Crown's 3-0 demolition of Don Bosco from Sri Lanka. This was exactly the kind of result the large Cambodian crowd were hoping for, and they got it. The competition itself started at 1.30pm when the hot favourites, Neftchi from Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh's Abahani, the most experienced team in the tournament, met under the hot sun. Both coaches after the game commented on the conditions but it was Neftchi who stamped their authority on the match early on and never let go. Marat Adzhiniiazov made an immediate impression with a wonder strike on ten minutes that left his teammates breathless. A corner was cleared to him, some thirty yards from goal, and his first-time strike sailed into the top corner. What a great way to start the tournament. Neftchi, with a few older heads in the team, made it two-nil, two minutes after the half-hour, and effectively sealed the result in their favour. One of two foreign imports in the side, Uzbek Pavel Pavlov showed composure and a neat execution as he rounded off a chipped pass from his fellow striker Talaibek Dzhumataev. It was all over bar the shouting as Nefchi restricted Abahani's possession and snuffed out any goal-threat for the remainder of the first-half and all of the second period. They will certainly be a force to be reckoned with in this competition and they'll meet Don Bosco in their 2nd game on Monday, same time, same place.

Experienced striker Pavel Pavlov netted Neftchi's second goal

The Neftchi line-up who got their tournament off to a flying start with a 2-0 win

A perfect day

Crown's 3-nil winning line-up. Back Row LtoR: Tiny, Njoku, Obadin, Dara, Sothearith, Bunchhay. Front Row: Narith, Narong, Sokumpheak, Chaya, Sopanha.

It doesn't get much better than this. Phnom Penh Crown earned themselves a confident victory from their first AFC President's Cup Group A match this afternoon, beating the Don Bosco Sports Club from Sri Lanka 3-0, in front of a partisan Olympic Stadium crowd. They kept another clean sheet, their fifth in a row, and will kick themselves for not adding more to their tally, as they dominated their opponents for much of the match, with their neat passing game and incisive finishing. Fielding an unchanged line-up, head coach Bojan Hodak was in a similar frame of mine at the end of the game. "I was more or less happy but our guys were a little excited and they ran like mad for thirty minutes, pressing the Sri Lankan team, creating chances, getting the penalty, scoring...they need to learn how to pace themselves...when to speed up, when to slow down. In my opinion, they got excited and the crowd pushed them. I can't complain about their attitude but some of them were using too much heart and not enough brain. We should've won by more because goal difference can be important in this tournament, though I'm happy with one more clean sheet and my defenders played well. Only Narith was below par because he's been injured and didn't train properly the last few days." Looking ahead to the next two matches, the coach demanded more from his team. "To beat Abahani we'll need to be 30% better than today and to beat Neftchi, 50% better. The Neftchi team is tactically much better than the other teams, though physically they don't have the quality of the others. We will need to improve to get success."

The game got underway with Crown probing their opponents though it was Don Bosco who offered up the first shot of the game when Ranga Fernando fired well over from long range. Both Sun Sopanha and Kingsley Njoku put shots wide of the target before Sopanha's long raking ball released Chan Chaya and his quick feet in the box drew a mistimed tackle from Thilina Arachchilage, with referee Vladislav Tseytlin immediately pointing to the penalty spot. Up stepped defender Tieng Tiny to take the spot-kick but he rolled his strike agonizingly wide to the disbelief of the home crowd. That was in the 19th minute. Two minutes later a neat interchange between Njoku and Kouch Sokumpheak saw the latter cut inside his marker and unleash a fizzing shot into the side netting. Crown were on top and made their superiority count on 25 minutes. Thul Sothearith and Chan Chaya combined to set up Njoku, who burst between two defenders and fired in a low drive that nestled in the far corner to give the home side a deserved lead. Kouch Sokumpheak was looking particularly lively against a pedestrian Don Bosco and glanced a header wide before whipping in a shot that was blocked by the back of visiting skipper Manju Pedige. San Narith was next to try his luck though his break into the box and thunderbolt shot was punched away to safety by keeper Ajith Kumara. Don Bosco came into the game as the first-half drew to a close with Rashen Dalpethado getting some space on the edge of the area but twice firing harmlessly wide.

The second half began brightly for Crown when Sun Sopanha's inswinging corner was dropped on his goal-line by Kumara only for the keeper to recover his error. Moments later, Sopanha's cross to the near post was touched over the top by Chaya's quick feet. Six minutes in and referee Tseytlin from Uzbekistan waved away loud penalty appeals as Sokumpheak was floored by Kumara's clumsy challenge. Crown stopper Peng Bunchhay was quick off his line to deal with a couple of long balls over the top before two goals in as many minutes saw Crown firmly in the driving seat. On 66 minutes, Sopanha was strong in the challenge, fed Kouch Sokumpheak and the Crown marksman sidefooted his low drive wide of Kumara for the second goal. Little more than a minute later, Njoku put Chan Chaya in space and he kept his shot low across the face of goal for Crown's third, to send the home fans into raptures. A few minutes later Sopanha looked to have added another when his bye-line chip eluded Kumara but was hacked clear of the line by Dilki Wewalage. Crown introduced three fresh pairs of legs and Hong Ratana was denied by Kumara's on-rushing frame after he pounced on a neat one-two with Suong Virak. With four minutes remaining, Chaya ballooned the easiest chance of the day over the bar after Sun Sovannrithy's bye-line cross had placed the opportunity on a plate at the far post. That was it in terms of goalmouth action, as Crown recorded a morale-boosting success, cheered on by thousands in the main grandstand, giving themselves a real opportunity to qualify from this group competition if they can achieve similar success in their next two matches.
Crown line-up; Bunchhay, Dara, Sothearith (Ratana 75), Tiny, Obadin, Narith (Sovannrithy 62), Narong, Sopanha, Chaya, Sokumpheak, Njoku (Virak 69). Subs not used: Visokra, Bunna, Vanthan, Sophanal, Rathanak, Sophat, Sochivorn, H Pheng, S Pheng. Booking: Sothearith.

Crown's foreign contingent of Kingsley Njoku (left) and Odion Obadin rest and reflect after the 3-0 victory

Crown head coach Bojan Hodak issues a note of caution at the post-match press conference

Captain Thul Sothearith leads out his Crown team in front of a packed grandstand

Crown line-up for the pre-match handshakes

The Crown bench moments before the start. Next to Bojan Hodak is assistant coach Bouy Dary.

Cut short

Crown coach Bojan Hodak instructs his players at their washed out training session this afternoon

Another full to brimming day in the build-up to the AFC President's Cup. The Phnom Penh Hotel was the first port of call to get the conference room ready for the Team Manager's Meeting at 11am, which was attended by the AFC officials, the Federation big-wigs, each of the 4 teams sent at least three people and all of the referees and other officials. More than thirty people in total. These meetings take place to run through the rules, so everyone knows what's expected of them. Necessary but all of it is contained in the competition regulations. They ran through what colour strips will be worn by the teams in each of their games. I can reveal, exclusively, that Crown will wear the following colours for their three AFC President's Cup matches:
v Don Bosco; Red shirts, black shorts, white socks. Goalkeeper will be all green.
v Abahani; Blue shirts, black shorts, black socks. Goalkeeper will be all green.
v Neftchi; Red shirts, black shorts, white socks. Goalkeeper will be all orange.
Immediately following the manager's meeting, we held a press conference to give the local media the opportunity to ask questions of the 4 team's officials. Bojan Hodak was quizzed, as was the coach of Neftchi and the team managers of Don Bosco and Abahani. As the Khmer press boys were pretty quiet I had to pose a few questions, whilst being filmed by a couple of television channels throughout. Bojan stated; "Nefchi are the natural favourites, whilst the Bangladesh team are quite experienced in this competition. I think Don Bosco and Crown are at the same level. But the plus for us is that we are at home, with the crowd behind us." Both Don Bosco and Abahani felt the kick-off times might make a difference as they usually begin their games, in similar temperature conditions, at 4pm and 6pm. Abahani and Neftchi both felt their foreign players were going to be key, Don Bosco will rely on their team game and their faith, whilst Bojan's response was; "We have 11 good players, any of them can decide the match." After a bite to eat, the latter part of the afternoon was spent avoiding the rain at the Olympic Stadium. Just as the Crown team arrived to train on the pitch, the heavens opened and they were resigned to stretching exercises underneath the main grandstand. The rains slacked off enough for the squad to manage a brief sprinting session behind one of the goals, but the rain returned and the lightning in the background wasn't too promising, so Bojan called it a day. They did no ball work at all. The Crown squad are in high spirits, collectively they can't wait to get started, are hungry to get the competition underway and tomorrow is a great chance to post a winning start to the tournament. A quick check on the booths outside the stadium, selling match tickets and the newly-arrived jerseys and scarves, before we headed to an 'officials only' welcome dinner at a seafood restaurant near Calmette Hospital. All the teams were represented, as were the AFC and match officials and an enjoyable meal was had by all. Tomorrow, it's down to the main business but tonight was time to relax ahead of the big event.

Bojan Hodak looking like he means business, whilst I appear to be carrying a 'man bag'
The Crown squad listen intently to coach Bojan Hodak

Skipper Thul Sothearith calls his teammates to order with Hodak looking on

Crown line-up before their session ends
The rain clouds reduced the Crown training session to a real quickie

The top table at this morning's Team Manager's meeting with Federation and AFC officials

One of two booths outside Olympic Stadium selling match tickets and Crown souvenirs. The lovely girls are an added attraction.

Crown abuzz

The Crown squad listen to instructions from coach Bojan Hodak at today's training session

Phnom Penh Crown managed to complete their afternoon training session today before the sky clouded over and the drizzle began. Coach Bojan Hodak reported no injury worries ahead of Saturday's opening AFC President's Cup match against the visiting Sri Lankan team Don Bosco, with Sok Pheng recovering from the knee injury that has sidelined him in recent weeks. Also back to full fitness is recent addition Sun Sovannrithy, who will be an important addition to the team with his experience and ability to play in a variety of positions. Another new face at the training session, though not under consideration for cup action, was 24-year-old Japanese-born Taka Ota, who was enjoying a training workout with Crown, having just arrived from Thailand, where he was involved in a Japan All Stars v Thai All Stars charity match last week. Also amongst the players training but not involved in the President's Cup games were Kenneth Nwafor and Sok Sovan, the only two players from the Crown first-team squad who are not in the final cup squad. Nwafor misses out as only two foreign-born players are eligible for the competition per team, so Kingsley Njoku and Odion Obadin have been given the nod by coach Hodak, amongst Crown's 23-man squad eligible to play. The team are staying at the Hang Neak hotel in the city, only 300 metres from the Olympic Stadium, where they will train tomorrow afternoon, having completed another session at their Tuol Kork HQ in the morning. Tickets for Saturday's matches go on sale tomorrow at booths outside the stadium, where fans can also get brand new replica shirts ($15) as well as scarves ($10) to demonstrate their allegiance. Before the matches begin, there will be a music concert inside the stadium on Saturday, featuring the excellent young band Cartoon Emo as well as DJ's Pou Khlaing and Illest. There will also be giveaways from sponsors for the holders of a few lucky ticket numbers.

Skipper Thul Sothearith faces the cameras after training

All smiles from Kouch Sokumpheak and Kingsley Njoku in trainingCoach Hodak explains exactly what he wants from his players

Tes Sophat is the man in the middle trying to win the ball

Sun Sovannrithy (yellow top) is sent tumbling by Odion Obadin in a training game

Japanese player Taka Ota, who joined the Crown team for a training session today