CNMI looks forward to more friendly games

Hualien FC’s Li-Chen Tsai, left, dribbles away from the defense of the CNMI’s Jasmine Phan during the first half of their friendly game last Sunday at the Hopwood Middle School Field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Matches like the one it had against Hualien Football Club are a must for the CNMI Women’s National Team.

“Our teams have a lot of young players and to help them improve, we must let them play more games against squads outside Saipan,” head coach Luam Khen Koo said in an interview with Saipan Tribune after their match opposite Hualien FC’s women’s team last Sunday at the Hopwood Middle School Field.

The visiting squad blanked the host team, 5-0, but despite the loss, Koo said the Commonwealth players still gained valuable experience from the friendly game.

“They observed and learned how teams outside Saipan plays and the way Hualien played could be similar or better than the squads we will face in the East Asian Football Federation tournament,” Koo said.

The CNMI will compete in the EAFF Women’s Preliminary Round 1 next year and the squad has been preparing for the event for several months now.

“With this friendly, they get a better idea on how our future opponents will play and what they should do or work on to keep up with the other teams’ level of play. We can’t just train and run plays without executing them through playing training or friendly matches. We need as many matches as we could get and we have a lot of time to do that since the EAFF tournament will still be held next year. We have a lot of work to do to get our girls ready,” the head coach added.

“We have to take every opportunities presented to us to get better and be more prepared,” Koo said.

As for his assessment on the visiting squad, Koo said Hualien had a couple of experienced players and they are definitely a big help to the young members of the team.

“Just like us, this team is looking to build up a strong squad and they can do that by playing a lot of matches and having their experienced players guiding the young players,” the former Olympian said.

Veteran Li-Ping Zhuo anchored Hualien’s shutout win against the CNMI after scoring a pair of goals, while Ying-Huie Chen, Ya-Chiah Yang, and Li-Chen Tsai chipped in one each. Tang put Hualien on the board right in the third minute, while Zhuo got her first goal in the 26th. The visiting team’s three other goals came in the second half with Chen starting the scoring in the 59th minute, Zhuo earning her second goal in the 68th, and Tsai closing out for Hualien two minutes later.

Hualien dominated possession, while the CNMI made a couple of attempts to score and faltered.

The friendly match against the Chinese-Taipei squad came a month after the CNMI Women’s National Team completed a weeklong training camp in Japan where the Commonwealth bets played five games.