Taiwan netted two goals in the second half against a scoreless, 10-man Mongolia in Guam yesterday to win their second game of the East Asia Football Federation (EAFF) Championship qualifying tournament.
Taiwan coach Toshiaki Imai started with a 4-5-1 formation as he had in their first game on Thursday, but made five personnel changes, including resting in-form striker Wu Chun-ching in favor of Tseng Chih-wei and replacing goalkeeper Chiu Yu-hung with Pan Wen-chieh.
The five midfielders did not dominate the field and boss the opposition around as they had in their impressive 8-1 victory over the Northern Mariana Islands in the previous match, with the more experienced Mongolia players fighting for every inch of territory and forcing a scoreless stalemate in the first half.
Photo provided by Chinese Taipei Football Association
The second half began with more open play, both sides having good chances in front of goal.
In the 52nd minute, Mongolia forward Bayarjargal Oyunbat was sent clear in front of goal, but goalkeeper Pan made a good save from a close-range shot.
Five minutes later, Taiwan took advantage of a counterattack, with midfielder Lin Chien-hsun collecting a long pass on the left side of box and beating two defenders and shooting into the far corner to put them in front.
In the 71st minute, the referee sent off Mongolia striker Murun Altankhuyag, judging him to have chopped down Taiwan defender Huang Wei-min during a goal-mouth scramble.
Three minutes later, Mongolia nearly scored through Oyunbat, who dribbled past the defense, rounded Pan and shot on target, only to see defender Huang Wei-min make a sliding, goal-line clearance to preserve a clean sheet.
Taiwan grabbed their second goal near the end of the game when midfielder Lin Shih-kai made no mistake on a rebound to drive into the net from right side of the box.
Taiwan face Macau tomorrow in their final game of the qualifying tournament.
In yesterday’s other result, Macau collected their first win by defeating the Northern Mariana Islands 3-1.
In the tournament opener on Thursday, Macau and Mongolia played out a 2-2 draw.
Taiwan will advance to next round of the EAFF if they beat Macau.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
RSS