Viet Nam beat China in U16 tourney

Viet Nam's youth players pulled off a surprise victory, defeating powerhouse China 1-0 in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U-16 Youth Championship in Indonesia on Monday.

Captain Anh Tuan scored the only goal of the match with an 83rd minute strike from just inside the area.

Viet Nam could have run away with the game if it wasn't for profligate finishing, with China down to ten men for the last 15 minutes, after having a player sent off.

Viet Nam will play hosts Indonesia in the next match today, with the final group match against East Timor.

Vietnamese American wins golf tourney

Vietnamese American golfer Andrew Hung Pham won the final round of the golf tournament, Matrix Golf Trophy Series 2010 on Sunday.

Hung won with the best gross score of 158, ahead of 55 contestants who'd come through qualifying rounds held in June and July.

After two days of competition at the Da Nang golf course, Le Ngoc Tu won flight A (145) and Nguyen Hoai Nam followed with flight B (139). Pham Thi Hong Loan (159) finished first in the women's contest, while Truong Chi Quan (149) took the junior title.

The annual tournament was played in the stroke-play format based on verified handicap, and was divided into four flights: A (handicap 0 – 12) and B (handicap 13 – 24) for Men, Ladies (handicap 0 – 24) and Junior (handicap 0 – 30).

The tournament was hosted by PAN Viet Golf Company, a equipment and accessories retailer of Mattrix Golf. It was supported by Today Communication JSC and the Golf Today magazine.

Vietnam Airlines hosts tennis tourney

Vietnam Airlines customers will have the chance to take part in an annual tennis tournament which will take place on Saturday in Ha Noi.

More than 120 amateurs who are customers, partners and agents of the Vietnam Airlines' northern regional office will compete at Youth Park's courts.

Competitors will be divided into groups and compete in a knockout format.

The tournament is one of activities to promote and strengthen the relationship between the national carrier and its customers.

Coach Giang quits Lam Son Thanh Hoa

Vu Truong Giang resigned as coach of Lam Son Thanh Hoa after a poor season with the team finishing third from bottom of the national football championship, V-League.

The team took only 31 points after 26 matches and only escaped relegation with a last-gasp play-off winning goal.

Giang who wanted to resign after just four matches was persuaded to continue with great support from the club management.

However, Giang failed to improve the team's form and his letter of resignation was accepted. — VNS

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Vietnam secure early win in 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi Cup

Kuwait goalie F.Marzouq challenges the ball with Vietnamese players during their 1000th Thang Long-Hanoi Footbal cup match at Hanoi's My Dinh National Stadium on Tuesday - Photo: TTXVN

HCMC - The Vietnamese national squad defeated Kuwait U23 3-0 in the opener of the 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi Cup Football Cup 2010 at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on Monday while North Korea beat Australia U23 1-0 in the earlier game.

The North Korean team was said to be strong because they would send their best players including 14 players who attended the World Cup 2010 in South Africa in June, and the Australian and Kuwait teams were also sending their strongest players.  

However, the North Korean side had sent in the 23-member squad with only six who attended the World Cup 2010. The Kuwait U23’s coach Al Shemmari said his team would include 12 players who played in the Gulf Cup final against the United Arabs of Emirates last month.

The Vietnamese team participated in the round-robin tournament with their strongest squad in hopes of keeping the cup at home. However, Vietnam faced some disadvantage when star striker Le Cong Vinh and former star striker Pham Van Quyen skipped the tournament because of injury.

Under heavy pressure from local fans, hosts Vietnam, coached by Henrique Calisto, dominated the game from the beginning and they placed more pressure on their opponents. Despite good ball possession, Vietnamese forwarders failed to grasp any scoring chances.

The Vietnamese had to wait until the 44th minute when striker Nguyen Viet Thang opened the score with a penalty kick. A Kuwait defender made a mistake as he handballed to give Vietnam a penalty kick and Thang made no mistakes, scoring first goal for his team.

After the break, the home side continuously organized more attacks on Kuwait defending lines and captain Nguyen Minh Phuong doubled his team’s advantage in the 66th minute with a free kick outside penalty area.

The visitors bounced back after the second goal as they put more pressure on their opponents aiming to narrow the scoring gap but all their scoring chances were denied by goalie Nguyen Hong Son.

Substitute Nguyen Trong Hoang, who replaced Nguyen Quang Hai in the 79th minute, finalized the game at 3-0 in the 84th minute to keep Vietnam’s hopes of winning the cup.

In the earlier opening game, the North Korean showed why they were favorites. Park Song Chol scored the only goal for his team in the 16th minute despite North Korea dominated the game from the beginning. 

Kuwait U23 will play North Korea at 5:00 p.m. and Australia U23 take on Vietnam at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Kuwait U23, North Korea and Australia U23 together with the Vietnamese national squad are competing at the 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup.

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 Monday to Friday at My Dinh National Stadium in the capital.

The winners will receive a cash prize of US$20,000, the runners-up US$10,000, and the third team US$5,000.

The tournament is seen as a warm-up for the Vietnamese team to prepare for the Southeast Asian championship - AFF Suzuki Cup 2010, co-hosted by Indonesia and Vietnam from December 1 to 29, where they are in Group B with Singapore, Myanmar and the runner-up team in the qualifying round.

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Swiss Cup defeat puts Federer withdrawal in the spotlight

Roger Federer of Switzerland wipes his forehead during his match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia during the US Open tennis tournament in New York, September 11, 2010

Photo: Reuters

Roger Federer's Davis Cup future was again the subject of debate following Switzerland's 5-0 defeat by Kazakhstan and relegation to next year's Europe/African group.

The defeat drew attention to Federer's last-minute decision to pull out of the team, announced on Wednesday only 48 hours before the start of the tie in Astana, because he said he was tired after the US Open.

"The door is still open for Federer but the team will not be unconditionally directed around him," Erik Keller, chairman of Swiss Tennis's Davis Cup committee, told Swiss media in Astana.

"We will not allow professional organization to be shaken."

World number three Federer has played 37 Davis Cup rubbers and led Switzerland to the semifinals in 2003.

From 2005 until last year, he has only represented his country in the playoff round which decides whether they stay in the World Group for the following season or are relegated.

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Record book honours monk

The Vietnam Records Book has recognised Most Venerable Thich Giac Toan
as an individual who translated the most Zen poems written during the Ly
and Tran dynasties (10th-14th century) from Han (classical Chinese
language) into Vietnamese in the luc bat style (a six-word sentence
followed by an eight-word sentence).

The Most
Venerable Thich Giac Toan, whose pen name is Tran Que Huong, on Sept.
18, released a book Huong Thien Ngan Nam (The Spirit of Zen in Thousand
Years) featuring 120 Zen poems written by Buddhist priests of the Ly and
Tran dynasties. It includes 2,783 sentences.

The
700-page book, written from the beginning of the Lunar New Year to July,
opens with a poem by priest La Quy and ends with a poem by priest Huyen
Quang.

The Most Venerable Thich Giac Toan said he
had decided to translate words featuring Buddhism from Han to Vietnamese
in “luc bat” because all Vietnamese, from intellectuals to ordinary
folk, hear this style of poetry even when they are newborns.

"So a luc bat poem is easy to enter readers' hearts," he said.

The book is a gift to Hanoi to celebrate the ceremony of the city's 1,000th anniversary.

The HCM City General Publishing House will print 15,000 copies of the
book. Of those, 12,000 copies will be given to monks and nuns across the
country while the remaining will be sold at bookstores nationwide.

The Most Venerable Thich Giac Toan became a monk at the age of 14 in
the Mekong Delta's province of My Tho , and in the late 1960s began
to write under the pen-name of Tha Phuong Khach. In the 1970s, he
issued two poem books including Tang Pham Cho Doi (Gifts for People). In
1980, he changed his pen-name to Tran Que Huong.

The Most Venerable Thich Giac Toan is vice chairman of the HCM City
Buddhist Sangha's Executive Board and deputy editor-in-chief of Giac Ngo
newspaper./.

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Traditional music of capital to be released

A DVD set featuring the traditional music of Hanoi will be released
later this month in honour of the capital's millennium in October.

The set, which is the first of its kind, includes
four DVDs featuring the history of Hanoi 's traditional music,
including songs and music works in different styles performed by veteran
and young singers and musicians. Most of them work for the city's
traditional theatres.

The DVD-producer Music
Publishing House invested a great deal of money and human resources to
record and film the artists on stage and in daily life.

The film's directors, People's Artist Tran Van Thuy and Nguyen Si
Chung, perfected the film with beautiful scenes and music.

Veteran artists Thanh Ngoan, Xuan Hach, Minh Anh and The Dan, four of
the region's leading traditional singers and music players, perform at
their best in the film.

"Our artists'
performances and talks provide audiences with the knowledge and beauty
of traditional music and instruments," said Chung, the film's director.

He also added that through the DVD audiences
could improve their knowledge of the different forms of music and could
sing traditional tunes.

The film will be
available in bookstores to celebrate 1,000 years of Hanoi . The film
highlights Ca Tru, Hat Xam and Canh Hong Tu, three popular genres of
music in the royal citadel of Thang Long (former name of Hanoi ).

Ca Tru (also known as Hat A Dao or ceremonial
singing), an ancient genre of chamber music, features female vocalists
who sing while playing music on bamboo tablets.

This was associated with a geisha-like form of entertainment.

The music was inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage
in need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Hat Xam (blind buskers music) is a type of folk music dating from the Tran Dynasty in the 14th century.

It was generally performed by blind buskers who travelled around the
citadel to earn their living by singing in common places like markets.

Xam artists often play Dan Bau (monochord) or Dan
Nhi (two-chord fiddle) to accompany the song themselves. The most
famous surviving artisan of the art form is Ha Thi Cau, a Hanoi
resident.

Canh Hong Tu is the kind of music used in religious ceremonies which dates back thousands of years ago in Thang Long./.

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China take Asian junior women’s volleyball tourney

China’s team beat rivals from the Republic of Korea in straight
sets in the final of the 15th Asian Junior Women's Volleyball
Championship at HCM City 's Phan Dinh Phung Gymnasium on Sept. 20.

The Chinese girls with their height advantage
got the better of the Koreans to win their ninth title out of ten
tournaments since 1992; the only remaining title was won by Japan
two years ago in Chinese Taipei.

The Republic of Korea has not won the title since they hosted the tournament in 1980.

The player of the tournament was awarded to Liu Yanhan. The top
scorer went to Park Jeong-ah while Mari Horikawa won the best server and
spiker. Yang Zhou was voted the best blocker, Wu Bei the best setter
while Sumiko Mori won best libero.

Japan overcame Thailand to take the third place and Chinese Taipei beat Kazakhstan to take fifth place.

Vietnam finished eighth after losing to Indonesia in straight
sets. The disappointing result is a warning to Vietnam that it needs
to invest more in women's volleyball if it wants to maintain its number
two rank in Southeast Asia in the future.

The
biennial tournament made its debut in 1980 and China have won most
titles (9), followed by Japan (5) and the RoK (1)./.

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Vietnam beat Kuwait at Thang Long-Hanoi Cup

Quang Hai (red jersey) is launching an attack towards the Kuwaiti goalkeeper

Vietnam sealed a 3-0 victory over Kuwait at their Monday opener of the four-rival Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup which is held from September 20-24 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

In the 43rd minute, Vietnam was awarded a penalty after a rival defender played with his hand in the box and Viet Thang successfully converted it into a goal.

He cheated the goalie jumping to the right before making a low shot to the left corner.

Minh Phuong went on doubling the scores in the 66th minute of the game after being set up by Minh Chau speeding up from the center area.

Almost grabbing the win in hand, Vietnam tested their line-up by applying a high formation and the third goal came in such a condition just seven minutes before the end of the match.

Defender Viet Cuong surged from the left wing and blasted a shot but it was denied by Kuwaiti goalkeeper. The loose ball arrived to Trong Hoang who was speeding down and cushioned the ball into the net to fix the 3-0 win for Vietnam.

The hosts Vietnam performed a diversified style of playing with attacks from the midfield, along the two flanks and with long shots.

From the 25th minute onward, Vietnam almost dominated the field, especially with the trio Tai Em, Minh Phuong and Quang Hai controlling the midfield.

Vietnam wasted several chances after Tai Em, Tan Tai and Minh Phuong drove the ball crossing over the bar.

Viet Thang also had two clear chances but twice failed to head the ball going into the net.

The visiting side Kuwait could play pressing attacking style within the first 20 minutes of the match. However, Vietnam timely braced up their formation by reinforcing the midfield area for launching counter-attacks.

In the previous match, North Korea edged Australia 1-0.

On Wednesday, Vietnam will take on Australia and North Korea to face Kuwait.

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