SEA GAMES 2011: LAOS HOLD TEN MAN BRUNEI

EBAK BULUS (7 Nov 2011) – Laos seem to find it difficult to play against teams with ten men and tonight, they were lucky not to concede a second loss in the competition when they held Brunei to a 2-2 draw at the Lebak Bulus Stadium.

On the first match day of Group B the Laotians, the 2009 semi-finalists failed to take advantage of Myanmar playing with ten men, when they succumbed to a 3-2 defeat.

And tonight, Brunei’s hopes of picking up their first win was stuttered as early as the 15th minute when defender Reduan Petara was red carded by Indonesian referee Oki Putra for a foul on Laos captain Lamnao Singto.

And while Laos’ Ketsada might have missed the upright with the ensuing freekick, there was no stopping them from clinching the lead when Lamnao after cutting in from the left, unleashed a well-placed shot in the 18th minute to punish the Brunei lackadaisical defence.

Laos then stepped up the pressure in search of the second goal but it was to be Brunei who found the back of the net when striker Adi Said, found the time and space for the equalizer in the 33rd minute.

The score at the end of the first half was 1-1.

It was Brunei who started brighter after the restart and in the 56th minute, they put their noses in front for the first time in the match – with Adi again on top of his game to punish some hesitant Laos defence.

Certainly, Brunei were not expecting such a score line when they were playing with ten men but not too long afterwards, the change for the nippy Manolom for Laos would change the pace and also the outcome of the game.

Ten minutes to the end, Manolom poked in a mad scramble inside the Brunei box when keeper Awangku Omar Sallehudin came off his line to put the score at 2-2.

Both teams then stepped on the gas after that looking for the winning goal but to no avail as the score stood for them to share the spoils.

aseanfootball