Experience is the key

The Cambodian U-19 line-up versus Singapore (pic courtesy of Prak Sovannara)

Commiserations to the Cambodian U-19 football team who are in Saigon and competing in the AFF U-19 Youth Championships. Drawn in the same group with the stronger footballing nations of Australia, Thailand and Singapore, it was always a mountain to climb to progress through the group stages and so it has turned out. They lost their opening game 3-0 to Thailand on Tuesday and then yesterday, went down 3-1 to Singapore. They will end their tournament against the Australian teenagers on Saturday before returning home. In yesterday's encounter they led after 17 minutes when Preah Khan youngster Prak Mony Udom (pictured) nosed them in front but it it went awry after the half-time interval. Singapore charged back into the game, levelling on 57 minutes and scoring two more in the last ten minutes. In addition to the defeat, Cambodia also suffered a goalkeeping loss when substitute stopper Sou Yaty (Ministry of National Defense) was sent to hospital late on after dislocating his shoulder. It never rains but it pours. The important thing for the squad is to soak up the tournament experience, much the same as the full national team did in the Suzuki Cup last year.

On an entirely separate subject. I received a package from the post office today which was sent to me from Australia exactly five months ago, by recorded airmail. We check our post office box a few times each week so it hasn't been lying around there, instead its been mislaid in transit for the last five months - where... goodness knows. It contained a dvd of the documentary film The Tenth Dancer from 360 Degree Films, sent to me to screen at Meta House. Fortunately, I was able to get another copy from a separate source but it makes me wonder how much more goes missing that I'm not aware of. If you do send me anything, via the Hanuman PO box number, send a confirmatory email as well please.

Dent in national pride

The Cambodian U-19 national football team played their opening match in the AFF U-19 Youth Championships in Saigon Tuesday afternoon. I previewed the tournament here. With former national coach Prak Sovannara in charge, the U-19's have been in Saigon for a week or so fine tuning themselves for the championships and are in a real tough group A alongside Australia, Singapore and Thailand. It was the latter who they faced in their first game of the round-robin group matches. And Cambodia were beaten 3-0 by their bitter rivals, whilst Singapore drew 1-1 against Australia. Cambodia went behind a few minutes before half-time and then lost red-carded Ministry of National Defense centre-half Thong Oudom (pictured) after 57 minutes, making their task an impossible one. So it proved when Thailand added further goals in the 73rd minute and six minutes from time. In Group B, hosts Vietnam beat Malaysia 2-0 while Myanmar were awarded a 3-0 win for a walkover following Timor Leste's failure to arrive in time. The 3-nil reversal leaves Cambodia with a mountain to climb to progress through the group stage. They now face Singapore Thursday (6 August) and Australia, the joint favourites, on Saturday (8 August). With the odds stacked against them, the U-19 players need to take every ounce of tournament experience they can from these three games as quite a few of them will be called up again soon as part of the U-23 squad to take part in the SEA Games in December.