V-League round 10: Long An continue revival with home win

Defending champions Gach Dong Tam-Long An maintained their comeback from a poor run earlier this V-League season with a nail-biting 4-3 victory over HCM…

20/03/2006 00:00:00
Defending champions Gach Dong Tam-Long An maintained their comeback from a poor run earlier this V-League season with a nail-biting 4-3 victory over HCM City-based Southern Steel-Sai Gon Port on home turf at Long An stadium

Defending champions Gach Dong Tam-Long An maintained their comeback from a poor run earlier this V-League season with a nail-biting 4-3 victory over HCM City-based Southern Steel-Sai Gon Port on home turf at Long An stadium.

The win lifted Long An, who won the V-League title last year for the first time, four spots up to 8th on the table with 17 points, one clear of second-ranked Binh Dinh.

Portuguese coach Henrique Calisto yesterday fielded the same line-up that trounced Mikado Nam Dinh 3-0 in the previous game, in which injured captain Phan Van Tai Em and key striker Fabio Dos Santos were on the bench.

Long An”s players started to put the pressure on after five minutes of careful playing, researching the visiting opponents from HCM City. Sai Gon Port”s defence, without key man Nguyen Phuc Nguyen Chuong, had a hard time containing the home team”s advances.

The coordination of the Brazilian brothers, Antonio and Carlos Rodrigue, kept the visiting keeper on guard most of the time.

The visitors could only defend their goal for 18 minutes before the hosts opened the score with a header from Antonio Rodrigue. The goal came from the coordination between the Brazilian brothers – Antonio took a perfect pass from Carlos to get through Sai Gon Port”s defence to the net.

Sai Gon Port”s players pushed an attack to the host”s side for an equaliser before the break. The host”s defence could not fill the spaces left in the midfield, letting the Long An”s strikers through to shoot the target but failed to score.

In the 33rd minute, Nguyen Hoang Thuong capitalised on a hole on the guest”s side to send a curved pass to Nguyen Minh Phuong, who put the home team further ahead scoring face-to-face with the keeper.

Long An slowed down after the two goals and gave Sai Gon Port a chance to speed up their game and take command.

Long An”s Jesus made an easy goal just ten minutes later.

The visitors kept control after the break but could not convert their attacks into goals.

Host players took advantage of the visitors” hastiness to score two more goals in just ten minutes. Carlos scored in the 73th minute and Viet Thang made it four for Long An 10 minutes from the end.

But the hosts fell off guard with their safe 4-1 lead with only 10 minutes to go.

The guests showed determination in fighting back with fast offensive strikes; Jesus again beat the host keeper to score in the 84th minute and A Vy netted the ball again for Sai Gon Port in the last minute.

Sai Gon Port slipped down two places to 8th after the loss.

Last weekend”s action changed almost all the rankings, but Da Nang still maintained the top with a 2-1 win away to Hoa Phat Hanoi, who went down two ranks from 5th.

Binh Dinh replaced LG-HN-ACB at second with a 3-0 win over host Binh Duong.

Nam Dinh leapfrogged three places from 6th after beating former two-time champions Hoang Anh Gia Lai, who are still next to bottom with only nine points.

Song Lam Nghe An, who won the V-League three times in a row before Gia Lai dethroned them, also jumped up three steps from 7th with 2-1 win over LG-HN-ACB, who slid down to 5th.

Khanh Hoa improved their rankings, moving up two places to 11th with a 3-1 win over Misustar Haier Hai Phong on home ground.

CLUB RANKING

Pos
Club
GP
W
D
L
Pts
F
A
GD
1 DA NANG 9 5 2 2 17 15 10 5
2 P.BINH DINH 9 4 4 1 16 7 2 5
3 GM M NAM DINH 10 4 3 3 15 10 10 0
4 P.SLNA 9 3 5 1 14 8 6 2
5 LG HN ACB 9 3 4 2 13 9 7 2
6 K.KHANH HOA 9 3 3 3 12 8 7 1
7 TMN. CSG 9 3 3 3 12 14 15 -1
8 HP HN 9 3 3 3 12 12 14 -2
9 GDT.LA 10 3 3 4 12 10 12 -2
10 M.H HAI PHONG 9 2 4 3 10 12 15 -3
11 BINH DUONG 9 3 1 5 10 9 12 -3
12 HAGL 10 2 3 5 9 8 9 -1
13 POMINA TIEN GIANG 9 2 2 5 8 4 7 -3

(VNS)