NAYPYITAW (24 Aug 2013) – The stage is set for a mouth-watering clash between Vietnam and Australia in two days as both teams kept up their winning ways to currently take the top two positions in Group A of the AFF AYA Bank Under-16 Championship.
While Australia had an easier afternoon when they thrashed Brunei 19-0, the Vietnamese had to rely more on the physical before they were able to overcome Cambodia 6-0 in the second tie later.
Cambodia, who had beaten Brunei 8-0 in their last game, matched Vietnam for the most part in the first half before burly striker Back Hong Han broke through the Cambodian backline in the 39th minute to give Vietnam a 1-0 lead going into the break.
Just three minutes into the second half, another push through allowed Hong Han to head home the second goal of the game off a cross from Lam Thuan. It was obvious that the physically smaller Cambodians were finding it hard going and in the 54th minute, Vietnam went further ahead when Hoang The Thai picked up a through pass to score.
By then, the game had become less of a competition as Vietnam went on to score three more goals off Le Tien Anh (71st minute), Hong Han (88th) and Nguyen Doan Trung Nhan (90th).
The only red blot on Vietnam’s win was the red card on Tien Anh in the 83rd minute for a bad tackle on Seut Baraing.
In the meantime, Brunei suffered the biggest humiliation thus far in the competition when they were pummelled 19-0 by Australia in an earlier match in the group.
The Sultanate side who were embarrassed 8-0 by Cambodia two days ago, was again in the firing line as Australia romped to a 7-0 lead at the break off goals from Kosta Petratos (9th minute), Riley McGree (11th and 19th minute), Jackson Bandiera (23rd), Caio de Godoy (26th), Jamie Dimitroff (33rd) and Cameron Joice (38th).
There was no let-up in the second half as the Aussies then went on to add further goals through Joice (51st, 57th, 78th, 83rd and 90th), Gian Mendez (65th, 70th and 73rd), McGree (82nd), Petratos (88th and 89th) and Christian Verbi (90th).
