Football Team Faces Stiff Challenge in Jakarta Sunday

It would take a miracle for Cam­bo­dia to win any of the four re­maining matches in its World Cup football qualifying tournament.

Home-and-home contests with Indonesia and China will be play­ed over the next month, and the lar­ger countries will be heavily favored. Cambodia can take some solace from a 1-1 tie it earn­ed against Indonesia in the last World Cup tournament four years ago.

The two teams meet again at

4 pm Sunday in Jakarta at Bung Karro Stadium, which can hold up to 110,000 fans.

There were 30,000 in attendance on April 8 when Indonesia whipped the Maldives 5-0 in their only World Cup match to date. Five different players scored as Indonesia took a 2-0 lead after 15 minutes and coasted to victory.

Their second early goal was scored by Kurniawan Dwi Yuli­anto, 24, who spent two years playing for FC Lucerne in Switz­erland before he returned to his home­land three years ago. He was the top scorer in the Indone­sian league last year and led his national team to the finals of the Ti­ger Cup last November.

The other two teams in the qualifying group, Maldives and China, meet Sunday in Shianxi Provincial Stadium. Cambodia will host Indonesia on April 29 at Old Stadium.

 

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