Vietnam U-23s win LG Cup

Nguyen Tan Tai scored a decisive early goal to help Vietnam U-23s beat South Korea and lift the LG Cup on Saturday at Thong Nhat Stadium, marking the team”s first success with Alfred Riedl at the helm.

Riedl, who took charge of the Vietnam squad on a two-year contract in May in the lead up to the big international competitions, said that the victory came as a surprise.

“I didn”t tell my players that they had to go out there and win the Cup because I didn”t want to put them under any unnecessary pressure,” he said in the post-match press conference in HCM City.

The Austrian coach added that his players did not produce a good performance in the match against the South Korean student XI as they were tired following games against Syria U-21s and Bulgaria U-23s.

Vietnam drew with Syria and beat Bulgaria and Saturday”s result lifted them to the top of the group competition, a point clear of second-placed Bulgaria.

“I”m very happy with this success, which is definitely a great start to our preparations for the Southeast Asian Games (in the Philippines late this year),” he said.

Making some tactical changes for Saturday”s match, Riedl replaced captain Ha Lam with Trong Binh on the right wing and partnered Phan Thanh Binh and Le Cong Vinh up front for the first time.

Le Quoc Vuong, who captained the team, played as the holding midfielder with Tai and Quoc Anh supporting the strikers.

The system worked well and although the players looked tired they contained an early spell of South Korean pressure and stopped the visitors from creating any clear goal scoring chances.

After Tai”s goal six minutes into the game, Vietnam grew in confidence and controlled the match, although they did squander several clear-cut chances to extend the lead.

Tai”s goal earned him Man of the Match.

Vietnam players also swept most of the championship”s titles with Vuong taking the Best Player and Quang Huy claiming the Best Goal Keeper.

Bulgaria”s Kostadinov Stephan scored seven goals and took home the Top Goal Scorer award.

Vietnam earned US$40,000 for winning the week-long international tournament played at Thong Nhat Stadium, featuring four teams playing in a round-robin.

Bulgaria beat Syria”s U-21s 5-0 in a match played earlier last Saturday to take second place and prize money of $20,000 and Syria came third and received $10,000.

(VNS)