Taichung Blue Whale 0-2 Urawa Red Diamonds ( att : 162 ) – 2024/25 AFC Champions League Women

October 9, 2024

This year sees the first ever AFC Champions League for Women, with 21 sides taking part.  The format of the competition had the champions of the top 8 countries in the FIFA World rankings exempt to the main competition, with the 13 other entrants playing a preliminary stage to produce four qualifiers for the main competition, which has three groups of four, with each group to play its matches in a centralised venue.

A pilot competition featuring 8 sides, the AFC Women’s Club Championship, had been held in 2023, and was won by Urawa Red Diamonds, beating South Korean side Incheon Red Angels 2-1 in a final played in Saitama. Earlier in the competition they had beaten Taiwanese side Hualien 6-0.

As Japan were ranked 7^th in the world and the highest rated country in Asia, with Taiwan 40^th and 8^th best, their champions entered at the main stage and were drawn together in a group also containing Vietnamese champions Ho Chi Minh City, and Indian side Odisha, who had qualified from the preliminary stage by beating Etihad of Jordan and Lion City Sailors of Singapore. All the matches in the group were being played in Ho Chi Minh.

Urawa began their campaign with a 17-0 thumping of Odisha whilst Taichung were beaten 1-3 by the host side

Taichung Blue Whale

These diaries extensively covered Taiwan’s Mulan Premier League in 2020 and 2021 when it was one of the first leagues to commence after the Covid Pandemic. One game a week had an English language commentary on the CTFA YouTube channel, and the league’s Twitter account helpfully produced a guide to the league, and although it was nearly all in Chinese hieroglyphics, the names of all the registered players were also given in Roman script, making it relatively easy to follow matches and the league in general.

Unfortunately, the English language social media coverage ceased in 2022, making it much harder to understand what was happening in the league.

Taichung Blue Whale are based in Taichung, the second largest city in Taiwan, located in the centre of the island with a population of nearly 3 million.

In 2020, despite the goals of Michelle Pao and Lee Hsiu Chen they could only finish in second place in the 6-team league and the League Cup as in their head to head encounters, Hualien were able to exploit their weaknesses at the back.

Taichung though bounced back to win the 2021 title in a season abbreviated to just 10 league games. International striker Lai Li Chin ( 20 caps ) and Japanese midfielder Maho Taneka both scored five goals and veteran Thai striker Pitsamai Sornsai ( 120 caps/40 goals ) scored four times as Taichung finished three points ahead of Hualien. Sornsai has now been converted to a centre-back to extend her career.

Forward Su Yu-Husan ( 8 caps ) scored 14 goals for Blue Whale in the 2022 season but Taichung could only finish 9 points behind Hualien, but in 2023 they lost only once in 15 games to win the league by 6 points ahead of Hang Yuan.

The 2024 Mulan Premier League has four rounds to go before the conclusion of the season, and Taichung are in a three-way battle for the title, being level on points with Kaohsiung and two points ahead of Hang Yuan. Thai forward Saowalak Pengngam ( 20 caps ) was their top scorer with 8 goals.

Urawa Red Diamonds

Urawa Red Diamonds are also known for sponsorship reasons as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Red Diamonds Ladies. Under the same ownership as the men’s side of the same name, they are located in Saitama, which is around 30km north-west from the centre of Tokyo and play at the 21,500 capacity Urawa Komba Stadium.  The men’s side used to play at this ground, but now play at the 63,700 capacity Saitama Stadium.

The twelve team Japanese WE League became fully professional in 2021 and is in its fourth season. Urawa won the last two competitions and were runners-up the time before that. Prior to the creation of the WE League, Red Diamonds had finished champions in the Nadeshiko League, so have been National champions in three of the last four seasons.

In 2023/24, Urawa finished eight points clear of INAC Kobe Leonessa. Their top scorer with 20 goals was midfielder/winger Kiko Seike ( 22 caps ), who has since signed for Brighton and Hove Albion in England’s WSL for an undisclosed fee and scored a hat-trick on her debut against Everton. The Red Diamonds average attendance last season was 2,447.

Urawa have only played three matches in their 2024/25 with two wins and a defeat. The loss came in a 0-1 home reverse to INAC Kobe Leonessa

Red Diamonds had 11 different scorers in their 17-0 victory over Odisha. Midfielder Miki Ito was on target four times, and Yuzuho Shiokoshi ( 5 caps ) claimed a hat-trick in the opening 30 minutes.

All of the Reds’ squad are Japanese although defender Rion Ishikawa ( 3 caps ) was the only member of the most recent Japan squad. Keeper Sakiko Ikeda has won 20 caps, and midfielder and captain Hanaw Shibata won one cap.

Matchday Information

The match was being played at the 14,400 capacity Thong Nhat Stadium, which is home to both the men and women’s sides of Ho Chi Minh City.

Thundery showers during the day meant that the 15.00 local time kick-off ( 9am UK ) was pushed back to 15.15 . However, there were still puddles all over the pitch but at least it had stopped raining. Perhaps the conditions were ideal for Blue Whales ! The temperature was around 31 degrees.

Given the result of the first round of games, none of the major UK bookmakers were offering odds on this game !

The match was being streamed live on both The AFC Hub YouTube channel and onefootball.com.

Both sides made six changes to their starting line-ups for the first group matches.

As their name suggests, Blue Whale were in all blue, whilst surprisingly, the Red Diamonds were wearing white shirts with black shorts and white socks.

The referee was from China, with assistants from Australia and Mongolia and the fourth official from Uzbekistan.

Around 30 Urawa boisterous fans had made the journey to support their side, with about a dozen Taichung fans, although the camera tended to focus on one elderly gentleman standing on his own banging a drum to encourage the Blue Whales.

Match Report

Urawa applied some early pressure, but Taichung’s defence stood firm and won a goal kick and twice caught Red Diamond attackers offside. Even at this stage, playing passing football was difficult due to the pitch conditions and passes were regularly being held up in the water.

In the fourth minute, Reds full back Yume Endo decided to hack off a long ball so that the first corner of the match went to Taichung. The delivery from Liu sailed harmlessly onto the roof of the net.

Ririka Tanno then went on a run for Urawa but just when looking likely to get clear, the ball stopped in a puddle and Li was able to clear.

A Urawa right-wing cross went across the 6 yard line, and when Tanno retrieved the ball, her cross from the left was too close to keeper Tsai, who made a straightforward catch. With 12 minutes played Maehara turned on the edge of the area, but her left footed attempted went over the bar.

A minute later, Endo scooped the ball over the Taichung left back for Ito to hit first time from inside the right-hand side of the penalty area, but the fierce drive on the half-volley across goal hit the inside of the post and rebounded out to be hoofed cleared by Huang.

A scramble inside the 6-yard box ensued from the corner before Goto poked the ball wide from close range.

The game was turning into a battle in midfield in the conditions and Urawa were trying to play short passes to each other in the air rather than on the pitch. Taichung were closing them down well, and playing safety first football, opting to put the ball out of play under pressure rather than trying to play risky possession football, and if in doubt, played it long to avoid any mistakes close to their goal.

After 21 minutes, the lively Tanno beat Li on the left, but again the cross was easy for the keeper. Seven minutes later a chip intended to go over the Blue Whale back line was headed off for a corner by Huang, from which another scramble occurred. Three shots were blocked before Taichung could clear.

Flowing play continued to be next to impossible and another scramble occurred near the half-way line when the ball got stuck in a puddle.

With 38 minutes played, a rare excursion into the Reds half saw Taichung win a free kick on the right hand side of the pitch but Urawa keeper Fukuda made an athletic catch to claim Liu’s kick.

With the first half coming to a close, Urawa stepped up the pressure. Tsai made another good catch, this time from Akimoto’s cross, and then punched away another ball lumped into the danger zone.

In a rare break by Taichung, Liu’s optimistic 30-yard effort went well wide. Taichung then won their second corner, which was headed away, but Ito was judged to have fouled Sornsai just outside the area. Playmaker Liu sent the free-kick a few feet over the bar.

It remained goalless at the interval and although Urawa had looked the better side and dominated play, a combination of determined defending and the pitch had prevented them from converting this into goals.

Urawa created a decent chance one minute into the second period, when Ito sent a left footed shot from the edge of the area just high and wide of the left-hand post. They were then a little fortunate to win a free-kick just outside the Taichung area on the right hand side when Shiokoshi and Liu challenged for a header. There seemed to minimal contact, if any.

Shiokoshi then whipped the free kick across the face of the goal but Goto was prevented from reaching the cross by a shirt pull by Shen who hauled the Reds player to the floor. It was a clear penalty and Shiokoshi stepped up to send Tsai the wrong way from the spot. 0-1 after 56 minutes.

Five minutes later Shen had to be alert to head a long cross-field ball off for a corner, from which predictably there was another scramble in the penalty area, before Tanno lifted the ball to Ito on the left but a scooped cross was captured by keeper Tsai. Ito tried again a couple of minutes later but this time from the right, but her chip towards the far top corner was gathered by Tsai at the second attempt.

Taichung created a half-chance in the 66^th minute. Liu played a through ball from the half-way line for Jingxuan to run onto but under pressure from Goto, the midfielder put her attempt from 14 yards wide.

Back at the other end, a low corner from Shiokoshi was cleared at the near post by Sornsai before Urawa doubled their lead. Shibata ran at the Blue Whale backline and her chip put Tanno clear, and her first time left footed shot went across the face of the goal and nestled just inside the far post. 0-2 with 69 minutes played.

Two minutes later a similar move put substitute Fujisaki clear on the left by Ito, but from a much tighter angle, Tsai was able to make the save with an outstretched leg.

Urawa keeper Fukuda was almost embarrassed when a long ball skidded off the surface and struck her on the leg. A couple of feet either side of her and it would have been a fluke goal for Taichung !

The remaining 15 minutes was all Urawa, and it was simply a question of how many more they would score, but the answer was nothing.

Tanno shot narrowly over the bar and was then crowded out when shaping up to volley from 8 yards. The same player then saw a low left-footed drive pushed away at the post by the keeper diving to her right. Takeuchi then shot into the side netting from long range, although the keeper stood and watched it go harmlessly wide, and Shibata shot over from 20 yards. In added on time a cross-cum-shot from Fujisaki drifted just wide of the far post.

At the final whistle, Urawa had deservedly won the game. On a different day in better conditions, they probably would have won by a greater margin as the pitch was a huge leveller, and Taichung fought manfully to keep them at bay.

The match was played in a very good spirit, with players regularly sharing their water bottles with the other side, and players being helped from the floor by an opponent.

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thkwhc_0mek

Taichung Blue Whale : Tsai – Shen, Li, Sornsai, Wu ( Pengngam ), Huang – Liu ( Lin ), TC Chen ( Jilan ), Yaxuan, Jingxuan ( Intamee ) – JW Chen ( Nien )

Urawa Red Diamonds :  Fukuda – Endo, Goto, Okamura, Akimato ( Akari ) – Maehara ( Shimada ), Ito ( Fujisaki ), Shibata, Tsunoda ( Takeuchi ) – Shiokoshi ( Nishio ), Tanno

 

 

 

Taiwan 4-0 Timor Leste ( att : 1,894 ) – 2026 World Cup Qualifier

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 controlled 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 28^th 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 56^th 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 )