Ratnam lose to Ashgabat 0-2

Bernard Perera

Ratnam Sports Club came down to the second slot in the Group C of the AFC President's Cup qualifying round when they went down to Ashgabat SC from Turkmenistan 0-2 yesterday under lights at Sugathadasa Stadium.

Ratnam SC who topped the group with two wins from earlier games could not display their skills yesterday due to heavy rains that came down which also really spoiled the top class soccer expected by everyone present.

The ground was almost under water and the players from both teams could not control the ball and saw them falling every time they reached the ball. But the play went on for over 30 minutes with the both teams failing to penetrate the defences. It was not the suitable conditions for a game of this calibre. As the officials did not take it seriously to think of the ground condition the match continued.

Ashgabat team after struggling with rain and soggy conditions underfoot got ahead of the local team in the 38th minute when G. Chankayev collected a pass from Arslan Amanov, 1-0. Local team managed to penetrate the defence line on many occasions while the rains reduced to a certain extent but failed to find the correct target.

Amanov who received a good ball sent by the midfielders in a solo effort extended the lead in the 45th minute 2-0. The lemons were taken with the same score line on the board.

Ratnam SC came back for the second session with determination and produced some brilliant soccer with no rain during this session. When the local team was going on the attack the visitors put up a strong challenge to thwart the locals getting their goals. While doing this they also made many inroads in to their opponents territory with less success.

Though the Ratnam strikers played a better game in this session their opponents too made good use of this opportunity to dish out equally good soccer. Last five minutes of the game saw Lankans go on an all out attack but failed to find the net even to reduce the lead.

Iraqi Referee Kadhum Auda Lazim had to pull out the red card to send Rawmy Mohideen for rough play with about 20 minutes play left. This brought things harder for the local team to battle with ten players against a strong outfit.

Referee once again found fault with Serdab Geldiveu and sent him out of the field with seven minutes left for the final whistle.

The chances of Ratnam entering the semi final depend on the outcome of the results from the other two groups. Myanmar made their way to the semi final taking the top spot in Group C.

Myanmary's Kanbawza SC had things easy for them yesterday playing against Transport United from Bhutan. Myanmar soccerites were in top form yesterday and went on to slam seven goals in the first session to return to the pavilion on a happy mood.

In the second session they just played a quite game as they knew their victory cannot be taken away. This session too produced four goals for the winners to go past the double figure mark. 11-0.

This victory yesterday for Myanmar sealed their entry to the semi final of the AFC President's Cup to be held in the latter part of the year in India.

Rustan Saidor from Uzbekistan controlled this game.

Ms Julie Chwee Lian Teo from Singapore served as the Match Commissioner for these Group C games, while Azimi Abdullah from Malaysia was the Assessor appointed by the AFC for the tourney.