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| Vietnam’s Nguyen Anh Duc (L) fights for the ball with a Malaysian player during their Eximbank Cup match in Thong Nhat Stadium on Tuesday - Photo: Ba Chau |
The Malaysian team was said to be strong because they would send their best players who edged Vietnam 1-0 in the finals of the 25th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) last December in Laos. However, Coach K. Rajagopal made seven changes from that line-up.
The Vietnamese team participated in the round-robin tournament with their strongest squad in hopes of keeping the cup at home. However, Vietnam only kept eight key players in their SEA Games’s line up.
Under heavy pressure from local fans, hosts Vietnam, coached by Phan Thanh Hung, dominated the game from the beginning and they placed more pressure on their opponents.
The local fans celebrated the victory just 18 minutes into the game when striker Nguyen Anh Duc opened the score after receiving the ball from midfielder Thanh Trung in the penalty box.
The home side continuously organized attacks on Malaysian defending lines after the goal and Nguyen Anh Duc doubled for his team in the 25th minute.
However, goalie Bui Tan Truong made a serious mistake when he kicked the ball from the penalty area to his teammates. The ball, however, found the Malaysian striker Tahala, who made no mistake, narrowing the scoring gap for his team in the last minutes of the first half.
The second half was a different story when the visitors bounced back and put more pressure on their opponents aiming to level the scoring gap but all their scoring chances were denied by goalie Bui Tan Truong.
Despite good ball possession in the last minutes, Vietnamese forwarders failed to grasp any scoring chances, leaving the score at 2-1 upon the referee’s whistle at the end of the game.
In the earlier opening game, Singapore, who made eight changes from the team that played at the SEA Games, including the drafting of two players aged above 23, tied 1-1 with Iran, who are the youngest in their line-up, as all players are under 21.
Malaysia will play Iran U-21 at 4:00 p.m. and Vietnam U23 take on Singapore at 6:00 p.m. in their second games on Thursday.
Iran U21, Singapore U23 and Malaysia U23 together with hosts Vietnam U23 are competing at the Eximbank Football Cup, a tournament to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long –Hanoi.
The four teams are playing in a round-robin tournament with the team that gets the most points being declared the championship. The tournament is taking place from Wednesday to Saturday at Thong Nhat Stadium in HCMC.
The winners will receive a cash prize of US$20,000, the runners-up US$10,000, and the third team US$5,000.
