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Dutch win warm-up tournament
Julian Linden
Reuters
Saturday 02 August 2008
Urby Emanuelson scored a brilliant
goal to earn the Netherlands a 1-1 draw with Ivory Coast
and overall victory in a pre-Olympic soccer tournament
in Hong Kong on Saturday.
Ivory Coast equalised in the second
half when their captain Gervinho slammed the ball into
the net from close range but the draw was enough to
ensure the Dutch won the four-nation tournament following
their 2-0 win over Cameroon on Wednesday.
Cameroon finished second after
beating the United States 1-0 on Saturday courtesy of
a first half penalty from Aurelien Chedjou, while Ivory
Coast came third and the Americans last after they had
played out a scoreless draw midweek.
The Netherlands, among the favourites
for the Olympic medals in Beijing, took the early lead
when Emanuelson, who was named player of the tournament,
curled the ball over Ivory Coast's defensive wall and
into the back of the net.
But the Dutch spent most of the
second half defending against the impressive Africans.
Gervinho equalised two minutes
after the re-start and Ivory Coast missed a golden chance
to snatch victory when substitute Abraham Guie Guie
missed an open target in the last few minutes.
"We played a great game but
we were just unlucky in front of goal," Ivory Coast
coach Gerard Gili told a news conference, speaking through
a translator.
Netherlands coach Foppe De Haan
said his players had plenty of work to do if they wanted
to win the Olympic title.
"We had a lot of problems
tonight because Ivory Coast played very well,"
he said.
"We gave them too many chances
and we could have lost this game. It has been a good
week for us because we have been able to learn a lot
of things and get used to the conditions but we still
have some work to do."
Cameroon sealed their consolation
win over the United States when Chedjou converted from
the spot after a clumsy challenge from American skipper
Michael Bradley.
The Americans failed to score a
goal in either of their warm-up matches but coach Peter
Nowak said the players would have learned a lot from
the experience.
"We're still a little bit
naive about international football," he said. "We
have to expect games are going to be physical ... but
it was a good lesson for us."
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