VIETNAM U23 WIN VFF-SMARTDOOR CUP

Both Thailand and Vietnam as well as Singapore are using the tournament as part of their tune-up for the SEA Games which will be held in Laos on 9-18 December 2009.

The Vietnam U23 side had begun their campaign in the VFF-Smartdoor Cup with a 1-0 win over the Singapore U23 before beating the U23 team from China 3-1 in their second match.

With the win, the Vietnam youngsters picked up the prize money of USD25,000.

China finished the tournament on second after their 2-0 win over Singapore which saw them winning USD10,000 while Thailand – the defending champions at the SEA Games – finished third after three drawn matches.

In the match that was highly anticipated by both Thailand and Vietnam – considering that they are in the same Group A at the SEA Games – it was the hosts who had the first real look at goal when midfielder Mai Tien Thanh tested Thai keeper Kawin Thanchanaya.

But the Thais remain undaunted and while they managed to find the back of the net some time later, the goal was disallowed for the score to remain all even at the halfway point.

The second half saw both teams not taking too many chances and considering that Vietnam had already won the championship, they were just sitting back to protect their advantage.

In the meantime, the Singapore U23 side ended the tournament with another loss – this time going down 2-0 to China.

China dominated play from the very first whistle and it did not take long for them to score their first goal through Piao Cheng in the 14th minute.

Gao Di then doubled the score for China in the 27th minute.