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Garudas take out All-Asian Cup in Vietnam

  • Friday, October 14 2016 @ 11:10 pm ACDT
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Asia
The Asian Championships are being held in Saigon this weekend. Tonight matches kicked off with the All-Asian Cup. This competition is made up of nationals from China, Indonesia and Indochina (combined nations form the team of Indochina).  The three teams played each other in a round robin format with games consisting of 20-minute halves.
 
In the first game the China Reds demonstrated looked well drilled and used their height and body size to their advantage. The Indochina team were able to match the Chinese in some passages of play and looked dangerous when they got the ball out in the open but in the end it was any easy win for China.

Final score: China Reds (11.6.72) def Indochina (3.2.20).


While the size differential was a little more in their favour they could not match the polish of the Indonesian Garudas who worked well as a team and showed some very skilled passages of play. They looked like they had been waiting for this match for a long time and would have won by a lot more if they had been able to kick straighter (particularly with the wind)
 

Final Score: Indonesian Garudas (8.19.67) def Indochina (2.0.12).
 

Going into the final with one win each this match was always destined to be an arm wrestle in stark contrast to the first two matches.
 

The Garudas were quick out of the blocks and made headway into the breeze in the first half two set up a two goal lead at half time. From here they held on grimly as China pressed hard but were unable to capitalise on opportunities up forward. The Garudas on the turnover also had their chances to put the result beyond doubt. In the heat both teams had players going down with cramp in the last quarter. The defence of both teams was impressive and both teams look to have improved their play since we saw them at IC14. The Garudas take home the Cup running out 12 point winners.
 

Final Score: Indonesian Garudas (3.4.22) def China Reds (1.4.10).
 

Most of the players will now back up tomorrow, with the Indochina players breaking out to represent their home nations alongside the expats representing those nations for the Asian Championship.  For all the details and team previews go to http://www.afl-asia.com/asian-championships/