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| 25/07/2008 |
Vision Asia Bureau |
| 25/07/2008 |
AFC Football for Disabled Persons & Social Responsibility Committee |
| 28/07/2008 |
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| AFC Challenge Cup |
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| Kyrgyz start as favourites |
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| Spartak Stadium in Bishkek |
BISHKEK: Hosts Kyrgyzstan start as favourites in the AFC Challenge Cup 2008 Group C qualifying on Monday (May 5) after Laos’s late pull-out on Friday reduced the action to a three-horse race.
Bangladesh, who hosted the inaugural edition of this competition in 2006, take on South Asian rivals Afghanistan in the opening group encounter on Monday at the refurbished 19-000 seater Spartak Stadium with only the group winners assured of a place in the Finals which take place in the Indian city of Hyderabad from July 30-August 10, 2008.
With all of Laos’s matches cancelled, the home team fans will have to wait until May 7 to see Kyrgyzstan launch their campaign against Afghanistan though coach Nematjan Zakirov said the South-East Asian side’s withdrawal hardly made matters easy.
“Though Laos is not participating anymore, these matches will not be an easy task for my players”, said Zakirov whose charges lost to FIFA World Cup aspirants Oman 2-0 in a preparatory friendly recently.
The highlight of the group game – provided Afghanistan do not upset the mighty odds stacked against them - is set to be the Kyrgyzstan versus Bangladesh match on May 9 when the two renew their rivalry after the Nehru Cup last August in India where the Central Asians won convincingly 3-0.
But newly appointed Bangladesh coach Abu Yusuf was confident about his team’s chances, saying, “We have played before against Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan and their level is the same as ours.”
“Sometimes you might not play good, might not understand your partners, but this time we understand each other well, and I hope with our good planning we can win.”
Bangladesh lost in the quarter-finals of the inaugural edition while Kyrgyzstan made it as far as the semi-finals.
With a FIFA ranking of as low as 196, Afghanistan are the least fancied of the three teams to make the cut but coach German Klaus Staerk was optimistic of a decent show in the Kyrgyz capital.
“We have to show our best performance and everything will be fine,” said the German who led the Afghans in the opening instalment of this tournament in Dhaka where they finished at the bottom of their group with two draws.
“If we lose then it is still not a problem but we expect to perform to the best of our ability.”
Sri Lanka became the first team to qualify for the Finals from Group A after beating Pakistan, Chinese Taipei and Guam to the top position last month.
DPR Korea, Turkmenistan, hosts India and Myanmar have direct entry to the Finals of the tournament which helps to achieve AFC’s aim of raising the level playing field within Asia besides helping to discover home grown talent.
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