VIENTIANE (17 Oct 2011) – Myanmar scored a close 2-0 win over the Philippines as Thailand showed their pedigree with an 8-1 roasting of Malaysia on the second match day of the AFF Women’s Championship 2011 here at the National Stadium.
Myanmar, fielding a side which is being moulded for the SEA Games in 2013, were not expecting the Philippines to be much of a challenge.
“Sure we were expecting to score lots of goals but the Philippines have improved a lot and that made it tough for us,” said Yoshinori Kumada, the chief coach of Myanmar.
“We have to improve obviously from this first game where although the team played to instruction, we just did not score enough goals and we have to remedy that for the next match.”
Despite scoring the early goal in the fourth minute when My Nilar Htwe capitalised on a defensive error, the Myanmar girls found Philippines a hard nut to crack when the latter held out for long periods.
They even tried to catch Myanmar on the break but the Philippines girls just did not have enough pace to make things happen.
The closest they came to scoring a goal was a freekick at the half hour mark but the swerving shot from Natasha Alquiros flew just over the crossbar.
That failure to score saw My Nilar scoring the second goal for herself and also for Myanmar when she knocked the ball in from the far post off a cross from the right.
Myanmar stepped up the tempo in the second half but either through some fortunate defending or just plain hard work, the Philippines stood their ground all the way to the finish.
In the meantime Thailand as expected steamrolled over Malaysia 8-1.
The score at the half was 5-0 with striker Nisa Romyen scoring a hat trick off goals in the 5th, 10th and 12th minute as Warunee Phetwiset and Junpen Seesraum added further goals in the 28th and 38th minute.
Thailand’s other goals were scored by Sunisa Srangthaisong in the 49th minute, Taneekarn Dangda (54th minute) and a penalty from Junpen.
Malaysia scored their only goal of the game five minutes to the end through Fatin Shahida Azmi.
AFF WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2011
(All matches at the National Stadium unless indicated otherwise)
GROUP A: Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Laos
GROUP B: Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines
16 Oct 2011: VIETNAM 9 SINGAPORE 1 / INDONESIA 0 LAOS 11
17 Oct 2011: MYANMAR 2 PHILIPPINES 0 / THAILAND 8 MALAYSIA 1
18 Oct 2011: Singapore vs Indonesia (1600) / Laos vs Vietnam (1900)
19 Oct 2011: Philippines vs Thailand (1600) / Malaysia vs Myanmar (1900)
20 Oct 2011: Indonesia vs Vietnam (1900 at National Stadium) / Laos vs Singapore (1900 at Chao Anouvong Stadium)
21 Oct 2011: Myanmar vs Thailand (1900 at National Stadium) / Philippines vs Malaysia (1900 at Chao Anouvong Stadium)
23 Oct 2011: Winner A vs Runner-up B (1600) / Winner B vs Runner-up A (1900)
25 Oct 2011: 3rd/4th (1600) / Final (1900)
