Syria thrash hapless Cambodia 5-1 in Nehru Cup

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) An under-strength Syria was good enough to thrash a hapless Cambodia 5-1 in the Nehru Cup here tonight.

Syria, starting without at least four first XI players, toyed with the South East Asian side and the match, in fact, petered out into a practice game for the West Asians towards the close with their forwards competing to put their name in the score sheet.

Mohammed Al Zeno (25th minute), Zyad Chaabo (36th), Maher Al Sayed (51th and 87th ) and Aatef Jenyat (80th) scored for the victors, while Teab Vathanak (69th) scored the consolation goal for Cambodia.

With today's win, the Syrians ended their round-robin engagement with a clean slate atop the table with 12 points and they await the result of tomorrow's match between hosts India and Kyrgzstan to know their opponents in the final on August 29.

India need only a draw to book a place in the final as they have a better goal difference of plus six as against plus one for Kyrgyzstan.

For Cambodia, though, today's thrashing means they go back home with just one point, the same as Bangladesh, but more goals conceded -- 16 goals -- than any other side in the five nation tournament.

Syria began the match without captain Maher Al Sayed, regular goalkeeper Mowssab Blahowss and centre back Ali Dyeb, with reserve goalkeeper Mohammed Redwan Al Azhar being given the captain's arm band.

But, they toyed with the Cambodians from the very beginning though they have to wait for the lead till the 25th minute when Chaabo fed an aerial ball over Cambodian defence for Al Zeno who shot past the onrushing goalkeeper into the net.

Eleven minutes later, the sequence reversed with Al Zeno's first strike rebounded from Cambodian custodian Pich Rovenyothin for Chaabo to slam home.

Chaabo was replaced by Maher Al Aayed in the second half and the inspirational captain was immediately in the thick of things with his first touch of the ball. He fed man-of-the-match Mahmoud Al Amena inside the box but the latter shot straight to the goalkeeper.

Al Sayed then entered in his name in the score sheet six minutes after he took the field and this time it was Al Amena who gave a defence splitting pass to his captain to blast home past an advancing goalkeeper in one-to-one situation.

Cambodia scored a consolation goal against the run of play from the only real chance they got in the whole match in the 69th minute with Teab Vathanak slidding the ball just across the goaline after Syrian goalkeeper fumbled to collect cleanly a Kim Chan Bonrith first strike.

Syria, however, showed they can score almost at will when second half substitute Aatef Jenyat sent a dipping right footer into the net in the 80th minute after being fed by another second half substitute Feras Esmaeel backheel pass.

Maher Al Sayed completed the Cambodian rout with another strike three minutes before the final whistle.

India play Kyrgyzstan in a virtual semi-final in the last round robin league match of the tournament tomorrow at 1900 hrs.

UNI