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.