The East Asian Football Federation Under-15 Boys" Tournament kicked off yesterday at the LeoPalace Resort Stadium with host team Guam falling 3-5 to Mongolia in the last of three contests.
The tournament field includes seven teams: Guam, Northern Marianas Island, Mongolia, DPR Korea, Macau, Hong Kong and Chinese-Taipei. Tournament games start at 10 a.m. daily through Thursday.
The Guam 15U national team battled aggressively for 90 minutes, but fell short in their opener. From the start, both teams were on the attack. Mongolia fouled just near the half-line to give Guam an opportunity with a free kick. Christian Schweizer found an opening through Mongolia"s defense to put Guam in the lead in the 5th minute.
Mongolia"s Tugsbileg Batbold took a pass in the 18th minute in front of the box and went one-on-one with Guam keeper Nathan Legozzie before sinking his shot that tied the game at one apiece.
Batbold then gave Mongolia the lead in the 26th minute with a header inside the box.
Guam got another goal in the 36th minute by Dylan Naputi after he maneuvered through the defense and beat Mongolia keeper Munkhbold Badorj. But Mongolia"s Munkhtsengel Amartsengel was quick to answer when he connected another shot just 2 minutes later.
In the second half, Naputi gave the Guam fans something to cheer about when he fired a shot off a deflection off the crossbar in the 52nd minute to tie the game at 3-all.
Unfortunately for Guam, that would be their final goal.
An unintentional foul in the box sent Batbold to the penalty line, where he regained the lead for Mongolia. Batbold produced his fourth goal of the game in the closing minutes when he sent a ball just out of Legozzie"s reach.
In earlier action, Chinese-Taipei shut out the Northern Marianas Island 14-0, and Hong Kong shut out Macau 5-0.