MANILA (18 June 2012) – The Philippines national Under-22 side bounced back from their loss in mid-week to beat Thai side Kasem Bundit University FC 2-0 as their counterparts from Vietnam and Malaysia also scored victories in their respective warm-up games.
Vietnam beat Maldives 5-0 at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok while Malaysia edged Qatar 2-0 at the Shah Alam Stadium. All three teams from ASEAN are using these games to prepare for the AFC Under-22 Asian Cup qualifiers next week.
The Philippines, who had conceded a 5-1 loss to Cambodia in Phnom Penh last week, improved somewhat this time round when they beat Kasem Bundit University FC 2-0 with the two goals coming off Valmayor and Christiaens.
In the meantime, Vietnam were in total dominance when they took on Madldives at the Rajamagala Stadium. The score at the half was 3-0 to Vietnam with goals off Quoc Phuong’s superb free-kick in the 14th minute, Dinh Bao in the 16th minute as well as Quach Tan two minutes later.
In the second half, overseas Vietnamese player Mac Hong Quan made an impressive debut, when he created the chance for Ngan Van Dai to extend Vietnam’s lead in the 47th minute. Hong Quan then settled the game beyond the reach of Maldives with the fifth goal of the game three minutes to the end.
On the other hand, Malaysia scored an inspiring 2-0 win over Qatar in the match that was marred by red cards on youngster Nazmi Faiz Mansor, who had recently signed for a Portuguese club, and Qatar’s Abdelkarim Hassan Fadlalla.
The two goals for the Malaysian were scored by Irfan Fazail in the 25th minute and Rozaimi Rahman in the 68th minute. The win was sweet revenge for the Malaysians as they avenged the 4-0 loss they suffered at the hands of the same Qatari side in a friendly last year.
“It was a very good game against a very strong side where we showed that we can be competitive against teams of calibre,” said Ong Kim Swee, the chief coach of Malaysia.
All three teams – Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia – are in the same Group G for the AFC U22 Asian Cup qualifiers where they will play all their matches in Yangon, Myanmar on 23 June to 3 July 2012.
Other than the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar, the other teams in the group are Chinese Taipei and Korea Republic.
