DAY OF MIXED FORTUNES FOR ASEAN TEAMS IN 2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

PHNOM PENH (30 June 2011) – ASEAN teams had mixed fortunes in the first round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers which was played last night.

Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam were all winners in their first leg encounters at home while Laos, Timor Leste and Myanmar all fell on the road. Philippines drew against Sri Lanka 1-1 in Colombo.

First off was Cambodia, who came back from a first-half deficit to beat ASEAN neighbours Laos 4-2 at the National Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh.

Phomsouvanh Manolom were on target twice for Laos with goals in the 10^th and 61^st minute as Cambodia made sure that the advantage was theirs with goals from Khuon Laboravy (52^nd minute), Sam El Nasa (59^th and 89th minute) and Kouch Sokumpheak (68^th minute).

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia had to toil for a 2-1 win over Chinese Taipei.

The Malaysians scored twice in each half through Safiq Rahim (28^th minute) and Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Razak (54^th minute) before Chinese Taipei replied through Chen Po Liang in the 77^th minute.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam under new chief coach Falko Goetz blasted hapless Macau 6-0 with striker Le Cong Vinh nailing a hat-trick with goals in the 19^th, 36^th and 39th minute penalty.

The other scorers were Thanh Luong Pham (62^nd minute), Nguyen Ngoc Thanh (67^th minute) and Nguyen Van Quyet (87^th minute).

At the Dashrath Stadium, Timor Leste went down 2-1 to Nepal where they scored their only goal in the game off Joao Correia Pereira in the 47^th minute.

Nepal were on target with goals off Anil Gurung’s 15^th minute penalty and  Ju Manu Rai in the 70^th minute.

In Ulaanbaatar, Myanmar could not get the better of Mongolia when they fell 1-0 to the home team with the only goal in the game coming off Khurelbaatar Tsend-Ayush in the 48^th minute.

The Philippines in the meantime gained some measure of advantage for the return tie when they held Sri Lanka to a 1-1 draw.

Chathura Gunarathna put Sri Lanka in front in the 43^rd minute but Nate Burkey found the equaliser for the Philippines just five minutes into the second half.

The second-leg of the first round 2014 World Cup qualifiers will be played this Sunday.