Sunday, June 19, 2011
Build Bright United v Rithi Sen
My first ever Cambodian League game at the Olympic Stadium in downtown Phnom Penh! Follow the crowds? Hardly. A 10 minute ride by tuk tuk to the stadium and I walked p the ramp and into a large, cavernous bowl of a stadium long familiar to me from Andy’s Kingdom of Football blog.
A couple of hundred fans perhaps in the main stand, seeking shelter from a tropical sun almost at the peak of its powers, 2 pm has to be one of the dafter kick off times in the region; at least Malaysia’s 8.45 pm has the advantage of being a bit cooler.
Build Bright United, doesn’t the name just trip off the tongue, started the better of the two teams though in their number 3 they had the feistiest player on the field. Rith Seny boasted a couple of import strikers who offered physic and presence but no pace.
Of course when ne team starts brightly and the other has the attacking threat of a soggy bag of chips you just know the weaker team will take the lead. And they did. Though Build Brigh equalized moments after from the spot. Build Bright had a player sent off but they still dominated and were fortunate that a ref who blew for everything including the most blatant of falls, decided to ignore an elbow to the face by the aforementioned number 3.
The points were secured just before the hour mark but in truth Build Bright, nominally the home team even though all 10 teams in the CLeague use the same Olympic Stadium, were so in control the narrowness of the victory doesn’t reflect their domination, though it is perhaps an accurate indicator of their attacking potency.
