Cambodia hold RI in 1-1 draw

Cambodia hold RI in 1-1 draw

PHNOM PENH (AFP): Cambodia's national football team scored the country's first-ever goal in World Cup play yesterday surprising a heavily-favored Indonesian squad with a 1-1 draw in an Asian group five qualifying match.

The draw gave Cambodia, competing for the first time in the World Cup, its first point in World Cup standings.

The crowd of more than 10,000 in Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium went wild, throwing thousands of plastic water bottles towards the field at the 65th minute when striker Hok Sochettra scored, giving Cambodia the lead.

Indonesia, which beat Cambodia's fledgling team 8-0 in their first qualifying match on April 6 in Jakarta and was expected to win again easily yesterday, evened the score in the 80th minute with a goal by Widodo C. Putro.

Cambodia was clearly ecstatic with the result as fans cheered wildly when the final whistle blew and First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh congratulated the players on the field.

"These players have made much progress," the prince said.

In Lome, Morocco took a decisive step towards reaching the World Cup finals a fourth time by winning 1-0 in Sierra Leone on Saturday night.

Salaheddine Bassir, who plays in Saudi Arabia, snatched the only goal after 40 minutes against rival which finished with 10 men when goalkeeper Brima Camara was sent off.

Camara was shown the red card with 15 minutes left and his departure wrecked any hope the Leone Stars had of avenging a four-goal hiding in Casablanca five months ago.

The winners of the five African mini-leagues qualify for the quadrennial showpiece of international football and Morocco, which tops Group 5 on seven points, completes its program with two home fixtures.

Second-placed Sierra Leone is three points behind with two away matches to come, leaving Tony Yeboah-less Ghana as the only nation capable of mounting a challenge.