Fans hesitate to buy AFF Cup tickets

HA NOI - Vietnamese fans have been slow to buy tickets for the opening match of the ASEAN Football Federation AFF-Suzuki Cup on Thursday between Viet Nam and Myanmar.

Outlets at Ha Noi's My Dinh and Hang Day stadiums sold just 2,500 tickets in three hours on Monday for Group B matches, with demand failing to reach the heights of two years ago when Viet Nam hosted the semi-finals and final.

Most fans were after tickets for the match between Viet Nam and Singapore on December 8, the most anticipated game in the group.

However, most Vietnamese football lovers are waiting for the result of the first game before paying for tickets for the following matches.

"As usual, fans are leaving it late, just one day before the opening match begins. However, what they really want are tickets to the last match in the group between Viet Nam and Singapore," said a ticket buyer, Ngoc Cuong.

"If Viet Nam beat Myanmar, people will rush for tickets," Cuong speculated.

In front of Hang Day Stadium, on Trinh Hoai Duc street, dozens of touts are offering tickets from VND100,000-VND200,000, just VND20,000 higher than face value.

The AFF has also released reduced ticket prices for the matches between Viet Nam and Singapore and Myanmar and the Philippines from VND50,000-VND150,000 because the two games will take place at the same time at Ha Noi's My Dinh Stadium and Nam Dinh's Thien Truong Stadium on December 8.

"I'll buy my ticket on Wednesday a few hours before the opening match kicks off. It's easy to buy tickets at the moment. Myanmar are not actually as tough as Singapore," said Do Son, a buyer at Hang Day Stadium.

He also said when Thailand play in the same group as Viet Nam, tickets sold like hot cakes because Vietnamese fans loved watching games between the two arch-rivals.

According to Viet Nam Football Development JSC, a ticket distributor, 40,000 tickets have been allocated for each match in Group B that fans can easily pick up from five distributors in Ha Noi. My Dinh and Hang Day are the most popular stadiums among Vietnamese fans, accounting for 40 per cent of the total tickets sold.

Only 25 per cent of tickets have been bought via the internet or message system.

Tickets can be purchased at www.aleale.com.vn.

For the final match between Viet Nam and Thailand two years ago, Vietnamese fans had to fork out up to VND3 million (US$150) to ticket touts – a significant increase on the face value of VND80,000 ($4). - VNS

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Athletics Federation gives cash awards to medal winners

The Viet Nam Athletics Federation (VAF) yesterday gave cash prizes of VND130 million ($6,500) to sprinters Vu Thi Huong, Truong Thanh Hang and Vu Van Huyen for their silvers and bronze medal at the Asian Games last week.

Huong bagged a 100m bronze and 200m silver, while Hang grabbed two silvers in the 1,500 and 800.

Vu Van Huyen surprised everyone to take a bronze in the men's decathlon.

At the awards ceremony yesterday, representatives from the German Athletics Federation and German Embassy in Viet Nam also presented sports equipment to Vietnamese athletes.

Earlier this month, Viet Nam Athletics Federation announced it will give a cash prize of US$5,000 to any of its teams to win a gold medal at the Games.

Student volleyball tournament begins in Ha Noi today

The National Student Volleyball Tournament – Toyota Cup will kick off at Ha Noi's Cau Giay Gymnasium today.

Sixteen men's and women's teams will be competing in four groups with the top two qualifying for the semi-final.

The winner of the men's and women's division will walk away with VND30 million (US$1,500) in prize money.

The championship will end next Monday.

Earlier, the Japanese car maker also agreed a 3-year deal to sponsor the annual tournament, which is expected to be included in the annual roster of the Volleyball Federation of Viet Nam. — VNS

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Team honoured before AFF Cup

Defending honour: Striker Nguyen Viet Thang takes the ball while coach Henrique Calisto (top left) urges players to train harder yesterday. Viet Nam meet Myanmar in the ASEAN Football Championship on Thursday. — VNS Photos Quang Thang

HA NOI — The Viet Nam football team has been awarded the Labour Order, Third Class, for winning the ASEAN Football Championship-AFF-Suzuki Cup two years ago.

Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto and six members of the winning team, Le Cong Vinh, Duong Hong Son, Phan Van Tai Em, Vu Nhu Thanh, Nguyen Minh Phuong and Le Tan Tai, were among 18 players and assistant coaches to receive the certificates in Ha Noi.

The honour is expected to encourage the team before they play Myanmar in the opening match of this year's ASEAN Football Championship.

The group B contest will be played at Ha Noi's My Dinh Stadium on Thursday.

Viet Nam won the AFF-Suzuki Cup – co-hosted by Thailand and Singapore – with a 3-2 victory in a two-legged final against Thailand.

Viet Nam will play with Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore in a round-robin in group B between Thursday and December 8.

The top two will qualify for the semi-finals. Last week, the AFF council decided to change the venue for the competition's second match from Ha Noi's Hang Day Stadium to Nam Dinh's Thien Truong Stadium.

Indonesia hosts group A which includes Thailand, Malaysia and Laos from December 1-8.

Viet Nam and Indonesia are co-hosting the regional football championship that ends on December 29.

Two countries have co-hosted since 2002 with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals and final that is played in a home-and-away format. — VNS

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Vietnam finishes ASIAD short of medal target

HCMC - The Vietnamese ASIAD team fell well short of their medal expectations at the 16th Asian Games (ASIAD) with only one gold of the six they’d hoped for.

Le Bich Phuong snagged the gold medal in the karate event. The team returns with 17 silvers and 15 bronzes, ranking them 24th - the second worst placing since Vietnam returned to Asia’s biggest sporting games in 1982. This year the team had aimed at 20th position.

Vietnam’s worst performance was at ASIAD 1990 in Beijing, China, when it did not win any medals.

The 33 medals were in shooting, athletics, rowing, wrestling, chess, Chinese chess, sepaktakraw, billiards, and martial arts events.

The karate entrant, Phuong, topped the team as the only gold medal holder, followed by sprinter Vu Thi Huong and medium-distance runner Truong Thanh Hang, each having two medals in track and field events.

Phuong defeated Kobayashi Miki from Japan in the women’s kumite final. Phuong surprisingly defeated world defending champion Miki 4-3 in the women’s 55kg category.  

The Vietnamese track and field team ended a medal drought at the Games when they took home three silvers and two bronzes. Previously, Vietnam had never won a track and field medal at ASIAD.

Vu Thi Huong opened the new chapter for Vietnam’s athletics at ASIAD with a bronze medal in the women’s 100m event as she was clocked in 11’’43 behind Asian champion Fukushima Chisato from Japan with 11’’33 and Khubbieva Guzel from Uzbekistan with 11’’34.

Three days later, Huong earned the silver in the women’s 200m category with 23.74 seconds just behind Takahashi Momoko from Japan, who took the gold with 23.62 seconds.

Truong Thanh Hang as Southeast Asian defending champion took home two silvers. Hang came second in the final round of the women’s 800m with 2:00.91 minutes, breaking the SEA Games record. Earlier, Hang also won the silver in the women’s 1500m category.

Meanwhile, Vu Van Huyen also brought home the bronze in the men’s decathlon event after overcoming many strong opponents from Japan and China. Huyen finished third with 7,755 points taking the bronze in the event. Karpov Dmitriy from Kazakhstan, who held the Asian decathlon record, won the gold, collecting 8,026 points followed by Kim Kun Woo from South Korea with 7,808 points.

The rowing and wrestling teams also surprised with medals.

Rowing took two silver medals in the women’s double scull and lightweight quadruple scull events, with four of six rowers making their debut in the continental games while the wrestling team also won its first medal at ASIAD when 19-year-old Nguyen Thi Lua won a silver medal in the women’s 48kg freestyle event.

Vietnamese wushu fell short of their expected medal tally with five silvers and four bronzes but still held the most medals of the team.

The Vietnamese delegation had 261 athletes competing in 29 of the 42 sports at the Games.

In 1994 at the Hiroshima Asian Games in Japan, taekwondo artist Tran Quang Ha won the country’s first gold medal, while Pham Hong Ha and Tran Van Thong brought home two silver medals.

At the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006, the country finished 19th with three gold, 13 silver and seven bronze medals. Briefly

Marquez stops Katsidis, demands third Pacquiao fight

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Karlsson beats Poulter in bizarre Dubai climax

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New European number one Martin Kaymer also landed a cheque for US$1.5 million after wrapping up his first money-list title.

The German finished well clear of closest rival Graeme McDowell after the pair tied for 13th place in the Dubai event.

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Wildly inaccurate film on Uncle Ho criticized

Director and People’s Artist Dao Trong Khanh has written an article
slamming a documentary film called “Truth about Ho Chi Minh” which was
recently produced overseas by a group of exiles, for distorting the
history of President Ho Chi Minh.

First of all
Khanh, a respected director of documentary films in Vietnam, affirms
that “Truth about Ho Chi Minh”, though a documentary, contains no
documentary value because of patchy and poor images which were used
carelessly just to illustrate their quotations.

“With music and the opening made in a theoretical manner, the film
quoted Stephane Coustois’s saying that, ‘People say history is the
science of human misfortune and the century of bloody violence in which
we are living has confirmed this saying broadly.’ But the truth is,
history is not just like that. Unceasing efforts and creativity, the
non-stop struggle for progress, and the pursuit of freedom and happiness
are basics of miraculous historical movements in the noble spirit of
humanity, including the sacrifice of revolutionaries worldwide. The
ambiguous and one-sided way of presenting an issue in a gloomy and
tragic manner inevitably results in a one-sided interpretation of the
content of the film,” writes the director.

Khanh
further points out that the images of massacres introduced in the film
are in fact pictures and documentaries of the crimes committed by the
French colonialists and US aggressors against the Vietnamese people. But
in this film, their real origins are ignored and they are attributed to
patriotic resistance fighters and communist soldiers. In addition, a
line-up of anti-communist maniacs are used to stage “radiofilm”
interviews - monologues without any illustrations.

He writes, “It makes no sense at all when one after another characters
speak in a serious manner about President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday and
death date – facts that Vietnam has officially announced. Vu Ngu Chieu
and Tran Gia Phung have laid stress on a letter from Nguyen Tat Thanh
(Ho Chi Minh) asking for enrolment at a French school in 1912. It should
not be forgotten that during this period it was necessary to seek all
possible ways to help the country and the people.”

“Sophie
Quinn Judge, who lives in a capitalist society and does not understand
anything about revolutionary activities, made a wild guess about the
relationship between President Ho Chi Minh and other women like famous
revolutionary Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. ‘There seems to have been an affair
between the two,’ said Quinn in the film. This is not the way
researchers do their work. Researchers do not use the word ‘seems’,” the
director says, adding how can one believe in a researcher like Vu Ngu
Chieu who has wrapped himself up in foreign archives for many years
to engage only in gossip and other people’s private affairs that are
unrelated to history.

People’s Artist Khanh, who
himself made a documentary about President Ho Chi Minh, says when
compiling documents about the President he had a chance to read the
original copy of the “Prison Diary” poem collection but did not pay
attention to Uncle Ho’s handwritings on the cover: 1923-1933. After many
years, when some people showed interest in this matter, the then Vice
Director of the Ho Chi Minh museum Nguyen Huy Hoan said the note just to
mark the 10-year “big misfortune” period according to Uncle Ho’s
calculation, not the time he penned the poems, adding that people do not
understand this so tend to speculate.

Khanh said he
also knew about the meeting between poet Pavel Antolkolski, who
translated the “Prison Diary” poem collections into Russian, and
President Ho Chi Minh, as well as the meeting between the President and
R. Bershatsky when this poet visited Vietnam. During this meeting, with
his openness and in his usual modest manner, the President made coffee
for his guest and said, “We write poetry when we have free time. In
Vietnam , everybody writes poems,” he recalled. The President did not
think of himself as a poet but the whole world is captivated by his
eloquent verses. Against this honourable history, the sabotage and
slandering campaigns of exile groups overseas are so mean, Khanh said.

According to the People’s Artist, researching Ho Chi
Minh heritage and learning about his thoughts and morality is not only a
long and huge scientific research project but also a conscious
evolvement of a nation towards “The true, the good and the beautiful”.
He stresses that hatred, slander and fabrications reflects the
degradation in personality which goes against human beings’ spiritual
evolution and advancement, binding oneself and losing the one’s root.

“It is true that the life of President Ho Chi Minh is
a legend. The legend is always beautiful. It contains the mystery of
romantic spirit and the transcendence of human awareness about the
world. US journalist William J. Duiler had written in his book about
Ho Chi Minh: “All great people have an implicit mystery”. He cited
President Ho Chi Minh as saying in an interview with journalist Bernard
Fall that, “The elderly like to have a small mystery about them. I would
like to keep a little bit of mystery about myself. I believe you
understand what I said.”

The legend of Ho Chi Minh
will forever be treasured by mankind and mankind will always try to seek
more understanding about it, Director and People’s Artist Dao Trong
Khanh concluded./.

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Calisto and players conferred overdue Labor Order

Coach Henrique Calisto and his players receive the honorary badge in Hanoi on November 28, 2010

Photo: VFF

Coach Henrique Calisto and six players from the Vietnamese national football team were conferred Sunday the Labor Order, Third Class, a state-level honorary badge for their winning the AFF Cup 2008.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) bestowed the honor on the Portuguese coach, striker Cong Vinh, half-backs Minh Phuong and Tai Em, midfielders Nhu Thanh and Phuoc Tu, and goalkeeper Hong Son for their winning the AFF Cup back in 2008 (Southeast Asia Football Championship).

VFF attributed the postponement in granting the honor to repeated delays in convening the national team.

At the ceremony in Hanoi, VFF President Nguyen Trong Hy wished the team success in the upcoming ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup, set to kick off on December 1.

In preparation for the tournament, the squad will have a practicing session today to review its formation for the last time. After that, Calisto will remove three players from the current roster to reduce the team to 22 players, the maximum allowed for each team.

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Viet Nam honoured before AFF Cup

HA NOI – Viet Nam football team received the Labour Order, Third Class from the State for their ASEAN Football Championship, AFF-Suzuki Cup, two years ago.

Portuguese Henrique Calisto and six players, Le Cong Vinh, Duong Hong Son, Phan Van Tai Em, Vu Nhu Thanh, Nguyen Minh Phuong and Le Tan Tai were awarded the honour orders in a ceremony in Ha Noi.

Eighteen players and coach assistants were also honoured the certificates of merit from the Government.

The honour award will encourage the team before the ASEAN Football Championship playing Myanmar in the opening match in group B at Ha Noi's My Dinh Stadium on Thursday.

Two years ago, Viet Nam won the AFF-Suzuki Cup, which was co-hosted by Thailand and Singapore, after a 3-2 win in a two-legged final against Thailand.

Viet Nam will play with Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore in a round-robin in group B on December 2-8. Two tops will qualify for semi-final.

Last week, the AFF council decided to change the venue for the competition's second pitch from Ha Noi's Hang Day Stadium to Nam Dinh's Thien Truong Stadium.

Indonesia hosts group A, which includes Thailand, Malaysia and Laos on December 1-8.

Viet Nam and Indonesia will co-host the regional football championship on December 1-29.

Since 2002 the AFF Cup has been hosted by two countries, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals and final, which is played in a home-and-away format. – VNS

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