VIETNAM AND AUSTRALIA START OFF AS FAVOURITES

While Australia go into the match confident that they had won the same age-group invitational meet last year, Vietnam have been working hard for the past month in preparation for this championship.

And when compared to the level of preparedness of their opponent, the Vietnamese might hold the advantage going into their first game in Group B tomorrow against Malaysia.

“We have been preparing this team for the last four weeks, so we are confident of doing well,” said Vo Hoang Buu at the pre-match press conference.

“But more than anything else, I hope that the players will use this tournament as part of their learning experience.”

Malaysia, who flew in late this afternoon, will only have the better part of the day to prepare against the hosts .

“We only have these few days but we will try our best to put up a good showing. We will be relying mostly on the players from our sports school,” added Hassan Sazali, the assistant coach for Malaysia.

Alistair Edwards, the assistant coach for Australia added: “it is always a wonderful opportunity to be given the chance to compete.

“But like most teams here, we did not train together prior to our arrival. We just flew here together and we will be using today to work on a couple of things.”

Australia will open their campaign in the championship against Singapore.

Additional quotes

“We had some two weeks of preparation. Some of the players are being identified for the SEA Games and where I will have to monitor them closely for national coach Raddy (Avramovic). It is interesting to play Australia in our first game – they will also be our opponents for the AFC qualifiers in November.” – Salim Moin, Singapore head coach

“It has been quite difficult to get the players together but at least we managed t6o have them this week here in Ho Chi Minh City. This tournament is a great opportunity for the youngsters to gain experience.” – Prak Sovannara, Cambodia head coach

“We only had one week to two weeks of preparation but we have been working hard on the players’ cohesion. It is a good tournament to give exposure to the players.” – Chalermvud Sangnapol, Thailand head coach

“There will be no expectation on these players as we have just started to build a league and later in the year, will be starting our school league. We are just here for the experience.” – Soe Myint Lwin, Myanmar technical director

GROUPINGS

Group A: Cambodia, Australia, Singapore and Thailand

Group B: Malaysia, Myanmar, Timor Leste and Vietnam

FIXTURES

4 August 2009
Thanh Long Centre –
Myanmar vs Timor Leste (1530)/ Australia vs Singapore (1745)

Thong Nhat Stadium –
Cambodia vs Thailand (1530)/ Malaysia vs Vietnam (1745)

6 August 2009
Thanh Long Centre –
Timor Leste vs Malaysia (1530)/ Singapore vs Cambodia (1745)

Thong Nhat Stadium –
Thailand vs Australia (1530)/ Vietnam vs Myanmar (1745)

8 August 2009
Thanh Long Centre –
Cambodia vs Australia (1530)/ Malaysia vs Myanmar (1745)

Thong Nhat Stadium –
Thailand vs Singapore (1530)/ Vietnam vs Timor Leste (1745)

10 August 2009
Thong Nhat Stadium –
Semi-finals 1 – Winner A vs Runner up B (1515)
Semi-finals 2 – Winner B vs Runner up A (1745)

12 August 2009
Thong Nhat Stadium –
3rd / 4th Placing – Loser SF1 vs Loser SF2 (1530)

Final – Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2 (1745)