Afghanistan (15) v (2) Belgium

By Tim Beissmann

A huge crowd cheered the Afghanistan team home to a dominant 15-2 win over Belgium today at the Melbourne Pitch.

As the national anthems played, Belgian player Luc Casteleyn could barely contain his excitement and was raring to go, inspiring his team-mates.

But Afghanistan dominated the play in the opening half, playing a brilliant game of possession football.

Afghanistan star Sayed Qasem sent through the first goal in laconic style, and followed it up with another fantastic four goals in the first half.

Belgium's Nourdine Benaissa was a favourite among the crowd with his long curly flowing locks, and was an excitement machine up forward, cleverly using the boards but unfortunately not troubling the scorers.

A hat-trick to Jawad Zahid late in the first half had Afghanistan taking a whopper 9-0 lead into the break.

It was impossible to silence the drums and chants of the Afghani fans during the break, who filled an entire bay in the Melbourne Pitch stands.

This encouragement urged them onwards to score another two early goals through Masih and Zekria to push the lead to 11-0.

But the Belgians also lifted their intensity and it seemed only a matter of time before they put one in the back of the net.

Enter Diana Mouwen, Belgium's only female player, who celebrated hard with her team-mates and pushed them to fight back.

Further forward surges from the Belgians were brilliantly saved by Afghanistan's keeper who regularly dropped to his knees to protect the net.

A nicely judged bit of team work from the Belgians snagged them their second goal, this time from the boot of livewire Casteleyn, but a further three goals from Zekria, Masih and Sayeed Reza sealed the victory for the Afghanis, who worked the ball through the defensive lines superbly.

Photos: Photoworx