O’DONELL APPOINTS VAN PISETH AND BOUY DARY AS ASSISTANTS

And the three have certainly not wasted time as they have been consistently on the lookout for players in the on-going Cambodian Premier League 2009.

“Both Piseth and Dary were with me before (in 2007),“ said O’Donell.

“I trust and respect them. Both were national team players and have a good knowledge of the game, and we already have a mutual understanding of what we want to achieve.”

Van Piseth, 47, was a former Cambodian international in the mid-1980s and played his football for the most part with the Army team before beginning his coaching career at Khemara FC.

He is due to take his AFC C-Licence coaching certificate next month.

The 23-year-old Bouy Dary on the other hand was the assistant to former national coach Prak Sovannara, and is one of the younger generation of coaches in Cambodia.

He played under O’Donell at the SEA Games in 2005 whilst with the Royal Navy team, and already has his C-Licence.

“The next stage is to get a squad together, with the SEA Games in Laos in December as the next major challenge,” added O’Donell.

“I want to put on a series of trials for around 40 players in the last three weeks of July at the National Olympic Stadium, with a view to sizing it down to a squad of 25 players.

“Then I’d like to get the squad with me a couple of times a week during August and September, which is why I met with the CPL coaches a couple of weeks ago, as I need their cooperation.

“I’d be concentrating on their technical and tactical awareness rather than their stamina until the end of the current season.”

The 42-year-old Australian is also looking to further strengthen his squad’s preparation for the SEA Games in Laos with a couple of friendly international matches and two training camps away in South Korea and Vietnam.

PIX: Bouy Dary (left) with Scott O’Donnell (right) at a Cambodia Premier League match.