Sunday, November 06, 2011
Brunei v Timor Leste
If you'd have told me when I was a teenager following the Arsenal round the country and the occasional European jaunt that in my later years I would have seen Chinese Taipei, Western Samoa, Brunei and Timor Leste play football against each other I would have scratched my head and picked up an atlas.
The first two I saw in an Olympic qualifier. Last night it was the turn of footballing powerhouses Brunei at Timor Leste at the Lebak Bulus Stadium in the SEA Games.
After the first 45 minutes it was surely a question of how many Brunei would score. The Timor keeper, Emerson Carlos Cesario looked like he had trained under Manuel Almunia. Under the slightest pressure he would fumble the ball and the watching coaches from Vietnam, Myanmar and Philippines would have made metal notes to pepper him from long range and follow up.
Inexplicably Brunei failed to do that second half. Leading 1-0 and dominating they seemed to back off as Timor Leste, roared on by a couple of hundred enthusiastic fans, took over. Brunei would left with a couple of long range efforts that Emerson handled comfortably while Timor applied the pressure.
Pictures from the game can be found on Asian Football Pictures.
# posted by Me @ 6:07 AM 
