Taiwan yesterday conceded two second-half goals and squandered numerous chances as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Kyrgyzstan — despite a one-man advantage — in their FIFA World Cup qualifier at Nanzih Football Stadium in Kaohsiung.
The result meant Taiwan remained winless after three games in Group D of the Asian qualifiers for the top global soccer showpiece in the US, Mexico and Canada in 2026.
Malaysia and Oman are the other two teams in the group, with Taiwan losing to them 3-0 and 1-0 respectively, leaving them with almost no chance of advancing to the next round.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan yesterday had captain Chen Po-liang (陳柏良) and Yu Chia-huang (游家煌) in the midfield, while up front were Samuel Kouame and Yu Yao-hsing (游耀興).
Pan Wen-chieh (潘文傑) was in goal.
The pace was swift in the opening minutes, which was met with tight marking and strong tackling at both ends.
Kyrgyzstan defender Said Datsiev tussled with Taiwan’s Chin Wen-yen (秦文彥) in the eighth minute, drawing protests by Taiwan manager Gary White, an Englishman in his second stint in charge of the national squad.
White ran onto the pitch to voice his discontent, prompting the referee to show him a red card.
Taiwan, known as the Blue Wings, created several chances in the early exchanges, but came up short against the skilled White Falcons, who play under Slovakian manager Stefan Tarkovic.
In the 24th minute, Datsiev was sent off for handball, giving Taiwan a one-man advantage for the rest of match, but they could not capitalize.
There was no score at halftime, but 10 minutes after the restart, defender Huang Tzu-ming (黃子銘) brought down the fleet-footed Kai Merk in front of the goal, with the referee awarding a penalty.
Kyrgyzstan captain Valerii Kichin made no mistake, putting the ball past Pan into the top-left corner.
Taiwan searched for an equalizer, but were denied by the defense.
In the 71st minute, midfielder Gao Wei-jie (高偉傑) received a pass and took a first-time shot inside the box, but goalkeeper Erzhan Tokotayev made an outstanding save.
That was their most clear-cut opportunity.
Ten minutes from time, Kai Merk went on a solo run past Taiwan’s defenders and slotted home past the advancing Pan to seal the victory.
“It was a disappointing result... We had the one-man advantage, but could not make effective plays on offense,” Chen said in a post-game interview.
“We thought that at least we could earn a draw at home in front of our fans, and they had one less player for most of the match,” he added.
“There were chances we should have converted, but they scored first to go 1-0 up, which put the pressure on us and we became disorganized in the second half,” he said.
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