Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Nanjing: Skipper Jang Sel-gi scored five times as Korea Republic stormed to a 7-0 victory over Myanmar in the second round of fixtures at the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship 2013 on Sunday.
Jang, who netted her and her country’s first goal of the six-team, round-robin tournament in Friday’s 2-2 draw with hosts China, opened the scoring at the Jiangsu Football Training Base Stadium after 12 minutes before going onto completed her hat-trick with further goals in the 17th and 21st minutes.
Fellow forward Choe Yu-ri weighed in with goals in the 33rd and 38th minutes to give the Koreans a 5-0 cushion at the interval before Jang resumed the goal-scoring responsibilities, finding the net in the 53rd and 78th minutes to condemn qualifiers Myanmar to their second successive seven-goal defeat.
“We saw the match between Myanmar and Japan and we thought that our players are faster and that we could exploit the space at the back of their defence and this worked well for us today,” said victorious Korean coach Jong Song-chon.
Jong’s side are next in action on Tuesday when they face Japan, who followed up their 7-0 win over Myanmar with a 2-0 defeat of Australia, and the Korean coach knows that their chances of winning the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship for only the second time after their 2004 title triumph, which was also in China, hinges on a positive result against the defending champions.
“Our next match is against Japan and we know this is going to be the most important one for us,” she said.
“We will field our best 11 and try our hardest to win.”
With two matches played and 14 goals conceded, Myanmar coach Radoy Minkovski is under no illusions about the step up in competitive intensity his girls have encountered in the finals.
“It is very difficult for our team to play in this tournament as the five other teams play at a very high level, they have good selection of players and a well prepared,” remarked the Bulgarian, who was previously head coach of Myanmar National League outfit Nay Pyi Taw.
“We were first in the qualifiers ahead of Chinese Taipei, Laos and Vietnam but that level is very different so our situation here is very difficult.
“I would like to congratulate the other teams and the organisation but unfortunately we are not yet strong enough to compete with the top five teams in Asia.”