North Korea beats CNMI, 9-0

The CNMI lost its third straight game Monday when North Korea gave the local boys a 9-0 beating in Day 2 of the EAFF U-14 Youth Festival 2008 Guam at the Leo Palace Resort.

The 18-man youth team of the Northern Mariana Islands Football Association are now 0-3-0 in Group B competition. The CNMI lost its debut against Macau, 0-2, last Sunday before being pummeled by powerhouse China in its second game, 0-15.

Other Group B results Monday saw North Korea take down Macau, 4-0, Hong Kong hold powerhouse China to a 0-0 draw, and Hong Kong skunk Macau, 6-0.

North Korea finished the elimination round a spotless 3-0-0 win-loss-tie record, while China at 2-0-1 came in second.

Hong Kong (1-1-1), Macau (1-3-0), and the CNMI (0-3-0) round out the teams in the group. The local booters actually closed out their elimination round schedule yesterday with a game against Hong Kong, but results were still not available as of press time.

While the CNMI lost its first three games, the islands’ southern neighbor, Guam, has been faring better and wound up in a scoreless tie with Mongolia in its first game Monday. It later lost to powerhouse Japan, 0-3, to finish group play with a 1-2-1 record.

In other Group A matches Monday, South Korea beat Mongolia, 5-0, and Japan won over Chinese Taipei, 6-0.

Japan and South Korea thus top Group A with identical 2-0-1 records. Chinese Taipei (1-2-0) finished in fourth place with Mongolia (0-2-1) bringing in the rear.

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.