CNMI blanked by Chinese-Taipei

The gallant CNMI team currently seeing action in the 2008 East Asian Football Federation Under-14 Youth Football Festival in Guam succumbed to its fourth straight loss when they bowed to Chinese-Taipei, 0-7, Tuesday at the LeoPalace Resort.

According to reports from the Pacific Daily News, the team from Formosa was aggressive from the get-go as they took advantage of their experience in regional and international competitions against a relatively young and inexperienced team from the Commonwealth.

Chinese-Taipei started the ball rolling, so to speak, when I-Ping Peng found the back of the net from 10 yards out with a mere two minutes into the game.

Chun-Chang Wu then made it 2-0 at the five-minute mark of the first half when his attempt got past CNMI goalkeeper Caleb Arriola.

Chinese-Taipei continued to put on a clinic with their strong defense and excellent passing as they went up 4-0 after the end of the 20-minute first half.

Down but not entirely out, the CNMI came out of their dugout after intermission with a purpose.

According to the PDN, for the first 15 minutes the CNMI prevented Chinese-Taipei from adding any more goals.

Their opponents actually took eight shots on goal, but Arriola’s strong goalkeeping prevented anything from crossing the line.

Chinese-Taipei finally breached the CNMI’s defenses when they scored goal No. 5 in the 35-minute mark of the competition. Chao-An Chen and Yen-Ling Tseng then each scored to give their team a commanding 6-0 lead in the 36th and 38th minute of the contest.

The PDN noted that the CNMI had a good chance at putting a goal through, but was snuffed by the Chinese-Taipei’s air-tight defense. Chinese-Taipei added one more goal during extra time to give them the 7-0 victory.

Other results Tuesday saw Guam shut out Mongolia, 3-0. North Korea tie Hong Kong, 0-0; and South Korea defeat China, 1-0.

Making up the CNMI team are Devin Atalig, Hunter Thorpe, Caleb Ariola, Jaythan Camacho, Crosby Shultz, Bo Barry, Stacy Escueta, Jake Lee, Clay McCullough-Stearns, Josiah Orlando, Angelo Jones, Andrew Johnson, Keoni Borja, Mickey Coleman, Misaki Cramer, Masami Hirai, Hunter Jewell, and Jehn Joyner

R.J. Knecht and Christian Miller are also part of the squad but are not able to compete because of injury and other commitments.

A total of 10 teams are taking part in the EAFF U-14 Youth Festival 2008 Guam. The matches consist of two 20-minute halves, with the better third-place team joining the top two teams from each group in Playoff Group E. The lesser third-place team will be joined by the bottom two teams from each group in Playoff Group F.

The EAFF U-14 Youth Festival was last held at the China National Football Training Center in Beijing in 2006, where the CNMI made its international debut.