Sports
Nepal aim to steal a point from Vietnam
Nepal will take on Vietnam in their second Group ‘D’ match of the Asian Games football tournament at the Wibawa Mukti Stadium in Cikarang, Indonesia, on Thursday.Nepal will take on Vietnam in their second Group ‘D’ match of the Asian Games football tournament at the Wibawa Mukti Stadium in Cikarang, Indonesia, on Thursday.
Nepal have never ever recorded a victory nor have they passed the first hurdle in Asiad in their last five participations. More tellingly, they have scored just one goal in their 3-1 defeat to Kuwait during the 1982 Games. They have conceded a harrowing 65 goals. However, Nepal opened their latest campaign with a morale boosting 1-0 defeat against the mighty Japan, the 2010 champions, on Tuesday. With Pakistan match to come, the narrow defeat have allowed Nepal to dream of making it to the second round via back door.
The top two teams from each of the six groups along with four best third-placed sides qualify for the Round of 16 in the U-23 tournament. Given Nepal beat Pakistan in the last group match and other results including against Vietnam go in their favour, Nepal have a realistic chance of grabbing one of the four berths available as the best runners-up.
If Nepal manage to hold Vietnam to a draw, which is extremely difficult though given their strength, Nepal’s claim for the best runners-up finish will be even high. In their last meetings during the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers held in Incheon in 2003, Vietnam beat Nepal 5-0 and 2-0.
“A draw over Vietnam will definitely boost our chances of making it to the knockout stages,” Bal Gopal Maharjan, Nepal assistant coach, had said on the eve of their match against Japan. “We will devise a plan to steal at least a point against Vietnam,” Maharjan had said adding that Pakistan, who Nepal takes on Sunday, are comparatively a weaker opponents.
Unlike Nepal, Vietnam made a flying start to their campaign defeating Pakistan 3-0. Considering the senior team’s Fifa rankings, Vietnam are ranked 102nd and Nepal 161st. Pakistan stand at 201, the bottom ranked team of Asia. Despite being the U-23 tournament, each team is allowed to field three over-aged players in a game. Nepal have included goalkeeper Kiran Chemjong, midfielder Bishal Rai and midfielder-cum-defender Rohit Chand as their senior player in the squad.