Preview: 2014 AFC President’s Cup – The Final

The Final of 2014 AFC President’s Cup was played yesterday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and was streamed live by AFC official YouTube Channel (The AFC Hub).

The Finalists was between HTTU Aşgabat from Turkmenistan and Rimyongsu SC from DPR Korea: it wss quite difficult to evaluate teams from North Korea because they entered a continental competition this year for the first time, but we expected that would have been quite balanced because these clubs were in the same Group in the Qualifying Stage (the team from Turkmenistan ended first with 7 points, while the team from DPRK second with five points) and they drew when they faced eachother.

The International Turkmen-Turkish University Football Club is based in the city of Aşgabat, the Capital of Turkemnista, and it has won Ýokary Liga 4 times so far.
They reached the Final after defeating 3-1 (28’, 73’, 83’ Muhadow – 35’ Sh. Shrestha) Manang Marshyangdi Club from Nepal and 1-2 Sri Lanka Air Force SC (21′ Ishan – 83′, 86′ Muhadow).
The main players in the team are few Turkmenistani Internationals, the defenders Şöhrat Söýünow, Akmyrat Jumanazarow and Serdar Annaorazow, the midfielders Guwanç Hangeldiýew and Dawid Sarkisow (Captain), but the star is surely the striker Süleýman Muhadow, the top scorer of this competition with 10 goals (nobody else has scored for HTTU so far) and second one of the last Turkmeni Championship with 23 goals.

The victory of Rimyongsu Sports Club in the last North Korean Championship was quite a surprise, because it probaly was the first triumph in their history, but it must be said that there aren’t plenty of data about football in this Country.
They reached the Final after defeating 5-0 (20’, 65’ Ri Jin-hyok, 22’ Ri Hyok, 24’ Ri Kwang-hyok, 57’ Pak Song-chol) Erchim from Mongolia and 4-0 (31’ Ri Jin-hyok, 45+4′ Pak Song-chol, 51′ Ro Hak-su, 60′ Kim Kyong-il) Sheikh Russel from Bangladesh.
As you can imagine, there are no foreigners in this squad and the best players should be the Internationals Jang Song-Hyok (defender), Pak Song-Chol (midfielder, he played in 2010 WC, he’s the Captain and should be the star of the team), Jang Kuk-Chol, (midfielder), Kim Kyong-Il (midfielder), Pak Chol-min (striker, he played in 2010 WC) and Jong Il-Gwan (striker).

FINAL

HTTU FC – RIMYONGSU SC 2-1
37′ Jumanazarow, 55′ Muhadow – 87′ Ri Kwang-hyok.
Sugathadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Attendance: 200.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yn655nI1b8&list=UUnj0TjaM0wyxkAWW_nz8_1g
In this video you can find the whole match, the highlights start at 2:09:25, while the maedals and Cup awarding ceremony begin at 2:17:00.

Süleýman Muhadow (FC HTTU) was the top goalscorer with 11 goals (6 in the Final Sgtage) and was also deservely choosen as the Most Valuable Player of the Competition.