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New Zealand edges Oman to enter Merdeka final against Malaysia seniors |
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August 19, 2000
KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - New Zealand's soccer team completed a sweep of their three Merdeka Cup preliminary matches by edging Oman, 1-0, and gained a berth in the final against Malaysia's senior side. Bradley Scott fired the goal in the 64th minute in a match where both sides applied pressure and had numerous chances. Oman's Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Torres, was ordered to leave the bench midway through the first half for protesting a decision to not award a throw-in to Oman and verbally abusing a match official. Malaysia's A side meanwhile thrashed the country's junior team, 3-1, on goals from S. Sivaram, Ahmad Shahrul Azhar and Ooi Hoe Guan. The lone score for the B team came from an own-goal by Leong Hon Seng. Torres earlier irritated Malaysian officials by claiming, after Oman's 2-0 loss to the Malaysian seniors Tuesday, that the four-way tournament was rigged to enable the Malaysia to make the final. "He went overboard," said Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, the deputy president of Malaysia's Football Association. "It did not reflect sportsmanship." Abdullah said that strong teams like Ghana and Cameroon had been invited but were unable to come, but pulled out after the dispute between the African and Asian football confederations after Asia failed to back South Africa's bid to host the 2006 World Cup. Abdullah said that Torres was welcome to make good on threats to take the matter up with FIFA, soccer's governing body. |