Cambodia’s Under-20 footballers rounded out a respectable showing in the Asian Football Confederation’s U-20 Championship in Malaysia with a 2-0 win over Macau.
Sarath Vicheth and Phan Dechas scored goals for the Cambodian team—the only two the team scored in the tournament.
The tournament consists of two stages: The qualifying group tournament and the final championship. Teams participating in the qualifying round have been divided into 11 groups of three or four teams. The winner of each group, plus the host team, Qatar, will advance to the final round. Cambodia was grouped with Vietnam, Malaysia and Macau.
The Cambodian team lost its first match 5-0 on Saturday to eventual group winner Vietnam, which will play in the final round in Qatar in October.
Cambodia rebounded to dash the hopes of the Malaysian side on Tuesday by holding them to a goalless draw. The New Straits Times quoted Malaysian coach Jorvan Viera as calling the Cambodian strategy “empty football,” and accusing them of “play-acting, time wasting and packing their defense with all 11 players.”
The Malaysian newspaper also cited that the medical unit was called onto the pitch 9 times and that Cambodian goalkeeper Oum Chandara was given a yellow card for stalling.
The Malaysian team was eliminated on Wednesday with a 3-1 loss to Vietnam. Cambodia finished the round tied with Malaysia with four points, but finished in third place because the Malaysians had a better goal difference.
