Taipei, Feb. 11 (CNA) Taiwan has never been known for its soccer prowess, but its national team had a good start to 2011 after beating Laos 5-2 in Kaohsiung Thursday night, raising its hopes of making the 16-team group stage in the 2012 Asian Football Federation (AFC) Challenge Cup.
The win will boost Taiwan's confidence when it travels to Vientiane, Laos on Feb. 16 for the second leg of their home-and-away encounter, as it vies to become one of four teams in the eight-team playoff to qualify for the group phase, consisting of four groups of four teams each.
Eight teams -- the winner and runner-up of each group -- will then qualify for the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Finals.
Taiwan, ranked 154th in the world, had no problem crushing lower-ranked Laos in its first international game of the year. Chang Han scored two goals as Taiwan pushed the lead to 5-0 after 56 minutes.
But Laos pulled back two goals, cutting into Taiwan's margin of error in the return leg.
Taiwan's head coach Lo Chih-tsun said that Taiwan will advance in the competition if it wins or draws the return match or loses by fewer than three goals.
The team will be eliminated, however, if it loses on Feb. 16 by margins of 3-0 or 4-1 because away goals scored will serve as the tiebreaker.
The biannual AFC Challenge Cup was established in 2006 by the AFC with the goal of giving countries in the "emerging associations class" -- the lowest of three AFC classes -- more exposure and game experience.
Some teams from developing associations and developed associations, however, have also participated in the tournament.
North Korea won the tournament in 2010. Tajikistan and India won in 2006 and 2008, respectively. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls