AFC U20 Qualifiers: Yemen Already Used to Jakarta’s Rain
Jakarta. Yemen stunned Timor Leste in a 3-1 win at the AFC U20 Asian Cup in a rainy match in Jakarta on Wednesday afternoon.
It began to rain at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno Madya Stadium at around 4.24 p.m. or sometime around the second half. Despite the downpour, Yemen’s Abdulaziz Awadh Masnom scored twice, respectively in the 29th and 57th minutes. His teammate Abdulrahman Al-Khadher Abdulnabi hit the net in the 74th minute. Alexandro Bahkito Lemos was the only scorer from the Timor Leste team that day. Alexandro tried to narrow the gap with a goal at the 69th minute.
Yemen’s head coach Mohammed Hasan Ali Al Baadani told reporters that past matches in other Southeast Asian countries had taught his team to get accustomed to playing under the rain. Indonesia has now entered the rainy season. Yemen will have two other matches against Maldives and Indonesia later this week at the same stadium. However, Al Baadani said that the rain would not be a challenge for his team.
“Actually, we are used to playing in such a climate like in Vietnam and Thailand,” Al Baadani told the press shortly after the match while it was still raining outside.
“So it is not an obstacle for us, but I think Maldives might be more accustomed to such climate,” Al Baadani said.
Yemen is set to face Maldives on Friday at around 3 p.m. The Yemenis will compete against Indonesia on Sunday evening.
