SONG LAM WIN UNDER-17 TOURNEY

The score at the end of regulation and added time was scoreless to allow Song Lam to win the overall title when they emerged victorious with an 8-7 scoreline.

The Vietnam U17 Championship began in February this year and was participated by all 64 provinces and cities in Vietnam.

A total of 13 players have been identified from the newly-crowned champion Song Lam Nghe An squad to join the Vietnam Under-17 national team which will be heading to Laos for a friendly on July 14.

IN THE MEANTIME, the Vietnam national ‘A’ team sprang a surprise on Bahrain on the weekend when they took the game 5-3 at the My Dinh Stadium.

But as Vietnam head coach Alfred Riedl admitted afterwards, luck did play a big part in the team’s victory.

“Two of the goals were ‘gifts’ from Bahrain goalkeeper Ali Hussain. But that does not mean that the Vietnam players did not play well because they did,” said Riedl.

Despite trailing as early as the third minute when Bahrain scored through Mohmood Abdulrahman, Vietnam maintained their composure to score the equaliser on 11th minute off a free kick from Le Cong Vinh.

A mistake in the 18th minutes when Ali Hussain threw the ball at Cong Vinh allowed the marksman to score his second goal of the game before a second mistake from Ali just after the break allowed Mai Tien Thanh to give Vietnam a 3-1 lead.

However, Bahrain fought back with two quick goals from Ala’a Hubail (62nd minute) and John Akwani (72nd minute) for them to draw level on 3-3.

But Vietnam was not about to lose their aim as far as their preparation for the Asian Cup was concerned with two late goals from Phan Thanh Binh and Nguyen Anh Duc for the final scoreline.

For the Asian Cup 2007, Vietnam have been placed in Group B up against United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Japan.