(photo from the AFC Cup Facebook page)
Kaya FC-Iloilo kept its knockout stage hopes alive as they scored a dominant win over Lao Toyota FC, 5-1 in their AFC Cup group stage match held at Panaad Stadium earlier today.
Ghanaian forward Jordan Mintah stood out as the match’s top performer, scoring his first AFC Cup goals eh route to a hat-trick while Connor Tacagni and Yannick Tuason scored one goal apiece for the Ilonggo squad. Kazuo Honma scored the lone consolation goal for the Laotian champions.
Kaya started the match with urgency from the opening whistle and was rewarded with a goal 11 minutes later. Marwin Angeles delivered a lofty ball into Mintah’s path in the right flank. Initially looking as a lost opportunity, Mintah got to the ball first and outmuscled Lao Toyota defender Ketsada Soukhsavanh all the way to the penalty box and produced a precise finish past goalkeeper Outthilath Nammakhoth.
They doubled the lead at 40 minutes, when an in-swinging Kaya corner was headed by Darryl Roberts into a crowd of players in front of goal. Tacagni was the quickest to react and directed the ball to an open gap in the defense and scored.
Despite an encouraging start from the Lao Toyota offense in the second half, it was Kaya who scored their third goal as Mintah got to the end of a searching ball from fullback Tyler Matas in the 66th minute as he outran the Lao Toyota defense and the outrushing Nammakhoth and dinked the ball to an empty net for his second goal of the match.
- The Laotian club got a goal back in the 70th minute courtesy of Honma from a searching cross by Rafael Rodrigues to try and spark a late fightback, but second-half substitute Tuazon put the match out of the visitors’ reach in the 86th minute as he produced a confident finish from a through ball provided by Mintah.
Mintah capped his Man of the Match performance three minutes later as he collected a pass from Tuazon and produced a blast of a finish outside the penalty box into the top corner of the Lao Toyota goal, giving Nammakhoth no chance to save it.
The win elevates Kaya to 8 points and second place in Group H and keeps them in the hunt for at least a best second place finish. The Ilonggos will travel to Singapore to face reigning ASEAN Zonal champions Home United for their final group stage match on May 14. /pf
