Who's a busy boy

Goalkeeper Samreth Seiha had a busy and fruitful day for Ministry of National Defense

The Preah Khan Reach team that moved back to within 2 points of the CPL leaders

After my morning whizzing around the city, the latter part of the afternoon was spent watching Cambodian Premier League football at Olympic Stadium. I only caught the back-end of the first game, just in time to see the Defense Ministry's goalkeeper Samreth Seiha score from the penalty spot against the Post Tel keeper to put his team 2-1 ahead. Earlier in the game, the country's number 1 keeper had given away a penalty and then saved the spot-kick, so all in all an eventful day for Samreth Sieha. His team eventually won 3-1 and consigned their opponents to relegation. In the second game, Preah Khan moved to within two points of leaders Phnom Penh Crown, with an unspectacular 3-1 win over Spark. It wasn't the three goals they scored that stood out, but the one they conceded. Possibly the goal of the season, it was Prince Justine, the CPL's leading scorer, who executed the perfect overhead kick to give Spark a very early lead. However, Preah Khan simply had too much power for Spark to cope with and their goals came from Ekene Ikenwa, Olisa Onyemerea and an own goal.
Scott O'Donell, the national coach, is keen to get his U-23 squad some practice before they face Singapore U-23s at the end of next month. To that end, a game against a Nigerian select XI will take place on Tuesday morning at the national football center and will be against African players not currently registered with a CPL team.

Spark FC took an early lead but ended up well beaten by Preah Khan

A peek at the after-match press conference as Preah Khan's coach Sam Vandeth faces the tv cameras