September 25, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 12, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 24: Defending champions Dordoi-Dynamo, Kyrgyzstan, sailed into semi-finals of the third AFC President’s Cup from Pool ‘B’ by overcoming Nepal’s Mahendra Police Club 3-0 at the Punjab Stadium on Sunday evening while two matches of Pool ‘A’ washed out on Monday due to torrential rain in the city.

The washed out matches (Army v Bhutan’s Transport United and Ratnam Sports Club, Sri Lanka, v Regar TadAZ) will now be played on Tuesday at the Punjab Stadium and Railways Stadium.

Dordoi-Dynamo have joined the Central Asian neighbours Regar TadAZ, who have already qualified for the last four on Saturday from Pool ‘A’.

Defending champions Dordoi-Dynamo led the first half 2-0. Defender Igor Kudrenko drew the first blood for them by scoring a goal in the 23rd minute of the match.

He received a pass from Valery Berezovsky, who had to take a corner but instead of kicking the ball into the penalty-area, he pulled the ball back as Kudrenko’s potent 30-metre left footed drive beat goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa to make it 1-0.

Ten minutes later, Kudrenko gave his skipper Ruslan Sydykov a chance to score their team’s second goal.

He lobbed the ball inside the danger area where Andrev Krasnov tested the rival goalkeeper with a header but the ball skipped away from the goalkeeper’s hands as Sydykov steered it into the net to make it 2-0.

The Mahendra Club found three scoring opportunities till the half-time but failed to utilise them.

In the second half, the winners resumed their goal scoring spree, earning third in the 59th minute through Andrey Krasnov off a fine pass from Ghana-born David Tetteh, who tapped the ball in front of him (Krasnov) to put it into the net.

There could have been one more goal for the Kyrgyzstan outfit but substitute striker Zamirbek Jumagulov, fed by Davron Askarov, saw his drive smacked the crossbar.

In another match on Sunday, Cambodia’s Khemara Club earned their first win, defeating Taiwan’s Tatung 1-0.

Khemara’s victory kept their hopes for the last four alive.

They had lost their first match to Dordoi-Dynamo 4-0 and to remain in contention, they had to defeat Tatung.

Khemara, which was the winner of the Fair Play Award last year, grabbed a quickest goal in the 15th second.

Striker Kouch Sokumpheak received a long ball from a midfielder and dodged goalkeeper Wang Shyh-Kuen with a swift movement before tapping the ball into the net easily.

The winner managed to maintain the lead till the final whistle. They found several scoring opportunities in the second session but failed to increase the lead.

For Tatung, skipper Hui-Kai Tsai missed a chance in the 31st minute while in the injury time, midfielder Chun-I Wu got possession of the ball inside the box but only to rattle the crossbar with a forceful drive.

On Tuesday, the last day of the group matches, four matches will be played, two each at the Punjab Stadium and the Railways Stadium, to decide the remaining two semi-finalists.

Army are not only in need of a big margin win against low-rated Transport United but also require Ratnam Sports Club to lose against Regar TadAZ by a huge margin to go through to the semi-finals.

In the pool ‘B’, the winners of the match between Khemara and Mahendra Police Club will have bright chances for the last four. Tatung Club has a giant task ahead to beat group leaders Dordoi-Dynamo to enter the pre-finals.

Tuesday’s fixtures:

Pool ‘A’:

Army vs Transport United at 12noon (Punjab Stadium); Regar TadAZ v Ratnam Sports Club at 12noon (Railways Stadium).

Pool ‘B’:

Khemara v Mahendra Police Club at 4pm (Punjab Stadium); Dordoi Dynamo vs Tatung (Railways Stadium) at 4pm.