Wednesday, July 17, 2024
A Look At The Teams In The Shopee Cup Qualifiers
Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng (Cambodia)
The only one of the four sides competing in the Shopee Cup Qualifying Round I have seen before. Based out near the Vietnamese border, Svay Rieng have an eclectic bunch of officials with a Scottish general manager, a Spanish coach aided by a Cambodian and an Irish assistant!
Last season they won the Cambodian Premier League as well as the Hun Sen Cup so they are team with momentum.
Club captain is Takashi Odawara who has carved out quite a career for himself having played in the Philippines and the Maldives before turning his back on archipelagic nations and moving to Cambodia in 2022.
As you'd expect there are a handful of Brazilian players and a Cambodian international who rejoices in the name of Texan born Cambodian international Nick Taylor.
One more player of interest. Lao international Bounphachan Bounkong arrived on loan last season from - drum roll - Young Elephants!
Young Elephants (Lao)
Initially a club in the mould of Young Lions/Harimau Muda but now a proper club in their own right. They won the double in 2022 and were league champions last season.
Singaporean owned, apparently the bosses fly down to their home country once in a while to buy football equipment at Peninslula Plaza!
They have a handful of foreigners from Brazil, Japan and Uzbekistan but most of the players are local, none of whom I'm familiar with!
Kasuka FC (Brunei)
Much prefer their full name of Kampong Sungei Kedayan! Won the Brunei Super League for the first time in their history.
26 year old Liberian striker Leon Taylor has an interesting career path. Arrived in Myanmar at the age of 19, after playing for three teams inside three years he moved to Kasuka in 2020.
In 2023 he spent half the year in Thailand with Nakhorn Sawan and the other half back in Brunei with Indera. This year has followed a similar path with the first fe months in Thailand at a low league club before returning to Brunei
They are coached by the experienced Ali Mustafa who has also had stints with the Brunei national side. Back in 2004 he was in charge of another local side, QAF and if you're wondering why I would mention that random piece of trivia, Aussie Robbie Gaspar was there at the same time!
Shan United (Myanmar)
Pretty dominant at home in the last few years having won the Myanmar National League four times in the last five years (Covid interrupted 2021).
Moussa Bakayoko is another who has had an interesting journey to South East Asia. Hailing from Ivory Coast, he has played in Morocco, Armenia, Republic of Irleand, England (Dartford, Havant & Waterlooville), Czech non league, Ivory Coast (Yippee!) and Kazakhstan before his (travel) agent found him a team in Myanmar!
Another name to watch out for is Efrain Rintaro, Brazilian born of Japanese immigrants he was with Osaka FC in 2022
