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Asian Football Confederation May Awards |
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By ..Football Asia (AFC Official Site) |
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Kuala Lumpur, 6 June 2001 - Suwon Samsung Bluewings have won the AFC Team of the Month for May after their superb achievement in winning the 20th Asian Club Championship, the regionกฏs premier club competition. The Korean club, who hosted the final stage of the event, reached the final after a last-minute headed winner from club captain Park Kun-ha helped them beat Iranกฏs Pirouzi 2-1 in the semi-finals. That set up a showdown against Japanese giants Jubilo Iwata, the 1999 champions, who beat Kazakhstanกฏs Irtysh Pavlodar 1-0 after a fortunate injury-time strike from substitute Jo Kanazawa. In front of 24,500 fans, Suwon got off to the perfect start when, in the 15th minute, young Brazilian forward Sandro Cardoso Dos Santos fired home from outside the area to give the Koreans a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish. Although the Japanese side pressed hard for an equaliser, they were always second best on the day, and missed the influence of injured playmaker Hiroshi Nanami and suspended midfielder Toshiya Fujita. Omanกฏs Hani Al Dhabit is the AFC Player of the Month after helping Oman reach the Asian Final Qualifying Round for the FIFA World Cup for the first time. The striker scored a total of 10 goals in his sideกฏs preliminary group matches against Syria, Laos and the Philippines, including five goals against Laos in a 12-0 home victory. Thailand also recently made it to the final World Cup qualifying round, and Englishman Peter Withe has been named the Motorola Coach of the Month following his sideกฏs hard-fought achievement. Witheกฏs team secured top spot in Group Five of the preliminary round after a nail-biting 2-2 draw at home to closest rivals Lebanon, which followed Thailandกฏs crucial 2-1 away victory in Beirut. Both sides had previously won all their matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Withe was one of the nominees for the recently awarded Motorola AFC Coach of the Year 2000, won by Japan coach Philippe Troussier. The Heineken goal of the Month was scored by Pirouziกฏs Hamed Kavianpour in the Asian Club Championship semi-final against Suwon, although much of the credit goes to his Iranian international teammate Ali Karimi. It was he who went on a typically mesmerizing run covering almost half the length of the pitch. What was left of the Suwon defence was so intent on preventing Karimi shooting from just inside the penalty box, that they failed to spot the supporting Kavianpour. His finish was the antithesis of all that Karimi had done before - he simply thumped it into the far corner of the net. SANYO PLAYER OF THE MONTH : MR. HANI AL DHABIT (OMAN) MOTOROLA COACH OF THE MONTH : MR. PETER WITHE ( THAILAND) TEAM OF THE MONTH : SUWON SAMSUNG BLUEWINGS (KOREA) HEINEKEN GOAL OF THE MONTH : MR. HAMED KAVIANPOUR, PIROUZI (IRAN) AFC COMMUNICATIONS 6TH OF JUNE 2001 |
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