CPL 2 Round 6 roundup

CPL 2 Round 6 once again proved a week of lop-sided victories, a couple of exciting games, as well as one controversial moment involving shirt numbers and an inured goalkeeper. It was also the last bit of fun us football lovers get until the 23rd April and the end of Khmer New Year.

To read about CPL 2 click here

Featured Match – ISI Dangkor Senchey FC 5 Next Step FC 0

Whilst the result here might look on the face of it as an absolute spanking, there was actually a lot more drama to the match, as well as at least one highly controversial moment.

Held at the impressive Cambodian Airways Stadium, home of Boeung Ket, ISI managed to fit a few hundred fans into the ground, with about 10 Next Step fans (including myself) also in attendance. They were also impressively selling their jerseys for $8 in the club shop, something seldom seen in the second-tier.

ISI were to take the lead early, but what followed was a largely even match, with it feeling at times that whoever got the next goal would probably win the match. Next Step managed to hit the underside of the crossbar in the 36th minute, while at the other end of the pitch ISI literally missed an open goal just before the interval.

The second-half tough was to prove a completely different story, with home player Kento scoring a great goal in the 63rd minute, before adding a second in the 67th minute after a corner was dealt with extremely poorly by the away teams keeper. It was though after the 4th goal in 71st minute that things became farcical. 

The away goalkeeper left the field for reasons unknown to anyone in the stadium, before begrudgingly coming back on after 5 minutes, or so. ISI added a 5th goal and then the tie was over. What was to follow though was some very heated discussions between the away manager and match officials.

Speaking afterward to Next Step FC coach Charlie Pomroy, we wanted to find out what the deal was with the goalkeeper, to which he had a rather interesting answer “Due to a mix up we didn’t bring the right kits, with the FFC insisting that our keepers could not play unless their name and number was on the back of the shirt. We only managed to get one shirt printed and low and behold our keeper got injured. We were then not allowed to make the substitution due to an overly zealous and frankly irresponsible interception of the rules. Games get delayed for hours if there is rain, but we were not allowed 15 minutes to print a shirt. We don’t blame the FFC for our own mistakes, or results, but we want to at least be playing on a level field”.

There are now rumours that the CPL and the FFC are looking to bring in rules where managers are not allowed to leave their seats during a match, a fairly poor idea likely to be argued against by every coach in the game.

The result though leaves Next Step in a very precarious situation, with their next game being against bottom club and arch-rivals Soltilo.

You can read about Next Step FC here.

CPL 2 Round Roundup

And as for the best of the rest? The highlight would have to be EDC FC winning 3-2 away to Asia Euro United, as well as Koh Kong beating Saltilo Angkor FC 2-0 away, both keeping open their promotion hopes, as well as keeping Soltilo firmly rooted the bottom.

Other shocks included Tboung Khmum who managed to beat Siem Reap FC 2-0 away, meaning the bottom 3 clubs all hail from the historic city.

Full round 6 CPL 2 results can be seen below.