Its great to see these kinds of tournaments in Asia. It seems to me that the AFC is one of the most professional confederations in the world when it comes to things like development and assistance, not to mention administration and organisation.
Its good to see the lower ranked nations in Asiia starting to play more matches. Last international matches : Brunei : March 2003 Macau : November 2003 Philippines : December 2004 Kyrgyzstan : November 2004
Teams are starting to prepare for the first ever AFC Challenge Cup as they all have a good shot at winning a trophy http://www.the-afc.com/english/competitions/challengeCup/ The Nepal national team is on an eight-day tour where the team will play friendlies against Kolkata clubs – East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammadan Sporting. Philippines will prepare for the AFC Challenge Cup with two friendlies against regional ASEAN powerhouse Thailand on Sunday and Tuesday at the Chonburi Stadium Pakistan will start their week-long tour of the UAE with a friendly against the UAE Legends team The 22-member national squad, sans Pakistan’s England import Zesh Rehman, will also play a couple of other friendly games against local clubs. Palestinian national team will check into a one-week training camp in Alexandria, Egypt, to prepare for the upcoming AFC Challenge Cup in Bangladesh. The Palestinian Football Association is also trying to arrange friendlies against top Egyptian clubs like Al Ahli, Al Zamalek, Arab Contractors, Anbi and Ismaily during this camp which starts on March 22.
This AFC Challenge Cup will be interesting as countries that usually do not prepare their football team for any competition finally get their house in order to win this trophy That is nothing like smelling the chance to win something to get them going
Whoever thought that Palestine was one of Asia's weaker sides and therefore merited a place in the Challenge Cup must feel like a HUGE idiot right now
Kyrgyzstan`s team are mainly the national U-20 team . They miss players playing in Russian and Kazakhstan leagues.
North Korea beat Guam 21-0 last year and Hong Kong beat Guam 15-0... Beating Guam 11-0 is not really impressive.
Yeah but once we we beat Cambodia and Bangladesh by similiar results then the guy will look like a huge idiot. This is going to be a cakewalk... We had an 8-0 lead at the end of the first half last game we barley bothered playing the second half and still got three more goals.
4-0 Palestine... 3-0 at halftime... cruise control second half... So where is the "challenge" in this challenge cup?
Philippines - India 1-1 , this group is very open. Afghanistan are leading against Chinese Taipei 2-1 at the moment with 30 mins to play. With that result all 4 teams can qualify before last match . Bangladesh are leading only 1-0 against Guam 1-0. (half time)
Chinese Taipei - Afghanistan 2-2 http://www.the-afc.com/english/media/default.asp?mnsection=media§ion=newsDetails&newsID=5527 Guam - Bangladesh 3-0 http://www.the-afc.com/english/comp...ws/default.asp?action=newsDetails&newsID=5526
at the end of the first half the score was 8-0.palestine pulled back from offensive duties then.What redstriker saying is that palestine are clearly underestimated.i knew that all along.our ranking is low because of the fact that we were re-affiliated in 1998
The reason Palestine is in the tournament is nothing to do with the quality of the team. Otherwise, Maldives would not be in the 2nd tier, and Palestine in the 3rd tier. It is to do with the football association in the country and organisation of youth tournaments and other stuff. It is the maturity of the association which determines which of the 3 groups the country belongs to. Anyway, here are all the results from the First Round GROUP A India U-20 2-0 Afghanistan Taiwan 1-0 Philippines Afghanistan 2-2 Taiwan India U-20 1-1 Philippines Afghnistan 1-1 Philippines India U-20 0-0 Taiwan 1st-India U-20 2nd-Taiwan 3rd-Philippines 4th-Afghanistan GROUP B Nepal 2-0 Bhutan Sri Lanka 1-0 Brunei Brunei 2-1 Nepal Sri Lanka 1-0 Bhutan Bhutan 0-0 Brunei Nepal 1-1 Sri Lanka 1st-Sri Lanka 2nd-Nepal 3rd-Brunei 4th-Bhutan GROUP C Bangladesh 2-1 Cambodia Palestine 11-0 Guam Bangladesh 3-0 Guam Palestine 4-0 Cambodia Bangladesh 1-1 Palestine Cambodia 3-0 Guam 1st-Palestine 2nd-Bangladesh 3rd-Cambodia 4th-Guam GROUP D Pakistan 1-0 Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan 4-0 Macao Tajikistan 2-0 Pakistan Kyrgyzstan 1-0 Tajikistan Macao 2-2 Pakistan Match in progress Kyrgyzstan 1-0 Macao (Half-Time) Kyrgyzstan must win by 5 to win the group, but need only a draw to finish 2nd, Macao must win by 2 goals to finish 2nd Current status 1st-Tajikistan 2nd-Kyrgyzstan 3rd-Pakistan 4th-Macao Quarter-Finals Sri Lanka v Taiwan India U-20 v Nepal Kyrgyzstan v Palestine Bangladesh v Tajikistan Semi-Finals Bangladesh or Tajikistan v Sri Lanka or Taiwan India U-20 or Nepal v Kyrgyzstan or Palestine Final Bangladesh or Tajikistan or Sri Lanka or Taiwan v India U-20 or Nepal or Kyrgyzstan or Palestine
I would expect Sri Lanka and Taiwan to be a pretty close quarter-final, with both teams unbeaten so far. I will go for Sri Lanka, as the last time the 2 met, the Lankans won 2-1. India, even with their U-20 team, should get the better of Nepal, who are finding it difficult to convert domination into goals, which proved costly in their defeat to Brunei. Palestine v Kyrgyzstan is an intersting match-up, and this will be Palestine's most difficult match so far, I think. However, they should have too much firepower for the Central Asian side in the end. The final quarter-final sees tournament favourites Tajikistan against host nation Bangladesh, and the Central Asian's should just have the edge here, but they are not renowned for scoring freely, so expect a close game. So, this would see semis of Sri Lanka v Tajikistan and Palestine v India U-20. I would predict a comfortable victory for Tajikistan and a solid win for Palestine to set up an intriguing showdown for the title. I'll go for Palestine on penalties in the final. Of course, I will probably be proved completely wrong after the football has been played.
I sincerely hope you are proved right in the end. Palestine winning would send the country into absolute euphoria.
Full-time Kyrgyztan 2-0 Macao So, confirmed Quarter-Finals 8th April - Sri Lanka v Taiwan 9th April - India U-20 v Nepal 9th April - Kyrgyzstan v Palestine 10th April - Bangladesh v Tajikistan