October 12, 2023
Preamble
Despite it only being October 2023, today saw the first matches on the road to qualification for the 2026 World Cup being hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.
The lowest 20 ranked sides in the Asian Conference as at July 2023 were drawn to play home and away matches for the right to progress to the nine four team groups in the second round.
This was a tie between sides ranked 153 and 192 in the FIFA rankings.
Background on East Timor
Timor Leste is the national team of East Timor, the eastern half of the island of Timor. It was a Portuguese colony until 1975, when it was annexed by Indonesia, who control the western half of the island, when Portugal abandoned Timor. After a bitter struggle with the Indonesian rulers, East Timor became a sovereign state in 2002.
The country has a population of around 1.4M people of which just under 300,000 live in the capital Dili, with over 99% being Catholic. Portuguese is still the main official language.
Timor Leste National Side
The national side had played just two matches in the past 12 months, against Brunei in the qualification for the AFF finals, but with both matches being played in Brunei they lost 6-2 in the first encounter but won the second game 1-0. Prior to these, they had played 18 matches, with just two draws, since their previous victory in 2018, which was also against Brunei.
Prior to today, Timor Leste had played 75 official internationals with just 8 wins recorded. Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia and The Philippines are the other countries in addition to Brunei to have lost to The Crocodiles.
Of the squad called up for the matches against Taiwan, 20 year old forward Olagar Xavier ( 3 caps ) plays his football in Cambodia for Siem Reap, whilst Joao Pedro ( 13 caps ) plays in Indonesia for PSM Makassar and Elias Mesquita ( 6 caps ) plays for a club in Brunei. The rest of the team play for sides in East Timor.
Football in Taiwan
These diaries prepared three reports on the Taiwan Premier League in 2020 when it became one of the first leagues to resume after the Covid pandemic. At the time, one match a week was streamed live on YouTube with a commentary in English, and for a couple of seasons the Chinese Taipei Football Association was active on social media with information on both the men and women’s leagues in English. Unfortunately, this has ceased this year.
The first match in these diaries from Taiwan in 2020 saw Ivorian forward Ange Samuel Kouame scoring a hat-trick for 2019 champions Tatung. Kouame has since become a naturalised Taiwanese citizen and now plays for champions Taiwan Steel Group ( TSG ) as well as the national team.
The second game covered saw Taiwan Steel slip to a 0-1 defeat to Hang Yuen, leaving the expensively assembled TSG team with a 4-0-4 record. Remarkably though they went on to win 12 of their remaining 13 games to win the 2020 title, which they retained in 2021 and 2022, and they currently lead the 2023 table.
The Taiwan starting line-up tonight included 6 players from TSG, with two from Taipower and one from Taichung Futuro. The other two players were full-back Chien-ming Wang, who plays in the Chinese Super League for Qingdao whilst under-23 international striker Yao-hsing Yu plays in the second division for Ming Chaun University.
The Taiwan coach is Englishman Gary White, who played for Bognor Regis but has managed a number of national teams, including the British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Guam and Hong Kong. This is his second stint in charge of Taiwan, having previously taken them to their highest ever ranking place of 121.
Taiwan have played 5 friendlies in the past 12 months, winning in Thailand and The Philippines, drawing at home with Thailand and The Philippines, and last time out losing in Singapore. The national side are also referred to as The Blue Wings.
Matchday Information
Taiwan played in blue shirts, with dark blue shorts, and did not have the players’ names on their shirts. In contrast Timor Leste were wearing a very tasteful red shirt, reminiscent of the English shirt in the 1990s as worn by Paul Ince or Gary Neville but with yellow numbers, with black shorts and white socks. Their players had one of their Christian names on the back of their shirts.
The referee and his assistants were from Bahrain
The match was played in the 55,000 capacity stadium in Kaohsiung, which has a grass pitch and a running track. The Taiwan Mulan Premier League side Kaohsiung Sunny Bank play many of their games in the stadium, including the behind closed doors season in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. The small, but noisy crowd were dotted around the ground but looked lost in the vast stadium.
The weather at the 19.00 local time ( noon UK ) kick-off was dry and the temperature around 27 degrees.
Bet365, who live streamed the match made Taiwan 1/8 favourites with Timor Leste at 18/1 and the draw at 13/2
Match Report
The home side made a fast start and with less than a minute played a long ball looked to have put Kouame clear, but Correia made an important tackle to play the ball back to his keeper.
With three minutes gone centre back Silva made a rugby tackle midway in his own half to prevent centre-forward Yu making a break. At the free-kick Timor Leste attempted to play an offside trap but it failed miserably, leaving Kouame ten yards clear. The Ivorian calmly drew the keeper and played an unselfish ball with his left foot to leave Yu with an open goal, and to side-foot into the empty net for the opening goal. It wasn’t clear from the TV replays as to whether or not the linesman had made a good decision.
However, the visitors responded well to this set back, and two minutes later right-back Wang made a crucial tackle on Quintao to prevent a shot on goal. Wang then did well to prevent Quintao getting on the end of through ball, and the battle between these two was become one of the features of the first half. A defensive mix-up between keeper Pan and centre-back Wei-chaun Chen enabled Quintao to get between them, but he could only steer the ball onto the roof of the net with an outstretched left foot.
At the other end Wu’s volley on the jump from 25 yards sailed well wide then Wen stepped inside Fernandes but his shot from the edge of the area went narrowly wide, but must have taken a deflection as a corner was awarded. The set-piece was floated to the back post where Taiwan centre-back Ting-yang Chen headed just over the bar.
The Crocodiles then had a great opportunity to equalise when a long ball put Xavier clear, but a poor first touch give Pan the chance to come off his line and bravely dive on the ball ahead of the Timor Leste striker.
After 23 minutes Taiwan left back Fong sent a dangerous cross into the 6-yard box but Yu, under pressure from Silva couldn’t make contact and the ball bounced away from the advancing Chao-an Chen at the far post.
Wang and Quintao continued their tussles near the corner flag and after Wang emerged with the ball, he was fouled by the Timor Leste winger.
Kouame then out-muscled Correia near the right-hand goal line but Bianco covering from the other wing made an important interception to the ball across the face of the goal at the expense of a corner.
The first yellow card of the match was brandished in the 28th minute after Wang body-checked Da Silva and as the game continued to ebb and flow, Moreira’s left footed cross from the right-hand side of the pitch went over the head of Wang, but also just over the head of Quintao.
Timor Leste looked to have good technical skills and were passing the ball around nicely, but were also prepared to send the ball long into space behind the Taiwan back four.
Six minutes before half-time Bianco delivered an inviting left-footed free-kick towards the home 6-yard line but Xavier was unable to make contact just beyond the far post.
Da Costa entered the referee’s note book after sliding into Chao-an Chen, after which Correia needed to be alert to head a bouncing cross from the left over his own bar to prevent it reaching Kouame.
A minute before half-time Wu made a strong run down the left wing and his pull-back found Kouame, who went down under a challenge. The referee pointed for a goal kick.
At the interval Timor Leste probably felt a little hard done by to be a goal down after an even first half, but they had been punished for one defensive lapse, and came out of the dressing rooms in a determined mood.
Straight away a corner was headed away by the Taiwan defence and then Wang, under pressure from Quintao, over hit a back pass and conceded a corner. The delivery into the mixer was headed away by Kouame back helping out his defence.
The Ivorian then looked to be too strong for Silva and ran clear for a 1 on 1 with keeper Nogueira, but the referee thought differently and penalised the attacker.
The game took a decisive turn in the 56th minute. A free-kick to Taiwan mid-way inside the Timor Leste half was taken quickly to Kouame in space on the left. His cross was inadvertently flicked on by Correia and fell to Ting-yang Chen 8 yards out, and although his goalward effort wasn’t struck cleanly, it nestled into the corner of the net to make it 2-0.
Stunned by this set-back, Timor Leste conceded a third goal three minutes later. Kouame was allowed to break down the left-hand channel, ran away from Da Costa and when approached by the keeper, again unselfishly simply lifted the ball with his left foot to the far post where Yu was unmarked to head home his second goal from close range and to give Kouame his third assist.
Three down with just over 30 minutes to play, Timor Leste rallied briefly, with Xavier prodding wide from near to the penalty spot and Fernandes sent a long-range effort high over the bar.
However, Taiwan quickly reasserted their authority, with a long throw being headed on for Nogueira to save at his near post, then Yu headed a cross from Chao-an Chen straight at the keeper from around 14 yards.
With time running out, substitute Joao Pedro sent a curling left footed from the edge of the area a couple of feet wide for the visitors, but the home side completed the scoring three minutes from time when a defence splitting ball from Hsiang-wei Lee put Yu-ting Ko clear to drill a left footed shot from just inside the area past Nogueira to make it 4-0.
The scoreline would suggest this was an easy win for Taiwan but for large parts of the game Timor Leste were competitive and played some good football. Ultimately though, an outstanding performance from Kouame was the major difference between the two sides.
Disappointingly, the second leg is to be played next week again in Kaohsiung rather than in the 5,000 East Timor National Stadium in Dili as it does not meet FIFA standards. With home advantage again a similar result should be expected, with Taiwan progressing to the second-round group stage where they would face home and away matches against Oman, Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_sT7ppuHdU&t=14s
Taiwan : Pan – Wang ( Liang ), WC Chen, TY Chen, Fong – CA Chen, Wen ( Lin ), Wu, CH Yu ( Ko ) – Kouame, YH Yu ( Lee )
Timor Leste : Nogueira – Silva ( Dos Santos ), Correia, Bianco ( Halle ) – Ribeiro, Moreira, Da Costa, Fernandes, Quintao – Da Silva ( Joao Pedro ), Xavier ( Mesquita )
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