Capital Cup football invitational kicks off Tuesday in Hanoi

Vietnam”s invitational football tournament The Capital SHBank Cup 2006 is set to start Tuesday with the participation of U23 teams from Malaysia, Thailand, and host Vietnam.

The host Vietnam will clash with Malaysia in the opening game at 5pm Tuesday in Hanoi before encountering Thailand two days later in the capital city.

Vietnam is expected to face a tough challenge from Malaysia, in preparation for major international battles at the 15^th Asian Games in Qatar next December.

Head Coach Satiananthan B. Nair said his Malaysian side has gone through some tough training over the last two months in Africa and Dubai, and the Arab United Emirates.

Malaysia”s football federation spent almost US$500,000 on the training sessions, following its master plan to give the club more high-level international experience to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Vietnamese team led by Austrian coach Alfred Riedl had only ten days training in Japan this month, and suffered four injuries in the process.

Tai Em, Hong Son, and Huy Hoang will certainly miss tomorrow”s game and A Huynh is not yet confirmed to be in the lineup, the coach said.

US$10,000 in cash will be handed over to the champion of the event, $5,000 and $3,000 respectively for the second and third place teams.

Thanh nien