South Korea's Kim Min-jae, second from right, celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal during an international friendly soccer match between South Korea and Vietnam in Suwon, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon).
Pakistan’s national soccer team won a World Cup qualifying game for the first time on Tuesday, beating Cambodia 1-0 in Islamabad to advance to the second round.
After the first leg in Phnom Penh finished 0-0, a half-volley from Harun Hamid was enough to secure victory at Jinnah Sports Stadium in a first home game for Pakistan since 2015.
It was also the first win for Pakistan, ranked 197th, since 2018. It next faces Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Jordan, starting in November.
Pakistan was banned by FIFA in April 2021 for 15 months because of “undue third party interference” in its second ban in four years.
Pakistan will be joined in the second stage by nine other teams after two-leg, home-and-away series for the Asian Football Confederation’s 20 lowest-ranked teams.
Yemen was held 1-1 at Sri Lanka, Asia’s lowest-ranked team at No. 202, but had done enough in its home leg to advance 4-1 on aggregate.
The other teams to advance are Bangladesh, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Nepal, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Myanmar will start the group stage in November against Japan which defeated Tunisia 2-0 in a friendly in Kobe, a sixth successive victory, thanks to a goal in each half from Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi and Junya Ito.
In another friendly, South Korea routed Vietnam 6-0 in Suwon, just south of Seoul, in coach Jurgen Klinsmann’s third straight win.
Apart from Vo Minh Trong’s own-goal, all the scorers for South Korea were European-based players: Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae, Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton, Tottenham’s Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain and Stuttgart’s Jeong Woo-yeong.
