Viet Nam draw 1-1 with Saudi Arabia

(VNS) Viet Nam drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia in the third qualifying round for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at Ha Noi”s My Dinh Stadium yesterday (09/14/2007).

Le Cong Vinh scored the only goal for hosts Viet Nam in the 64th minute. Fourteen minutes later, Hazazi Naif Ahmed stole the glory from Viet Nam with a goal for Saudi Arabia.

In the first half of the match, Saudi Arabia attacked repeatedly to no avail against a confident Viet Nam with a home ground advantage.

In the ninth minute, the visitors co-ordinated to attack, but goalie Duc Cuong calmly deflected the ball.

Saudi Arabia, on one point after two matches in the third qualifying round, showed their determination to add a further three points from this match. They organised to attack repeatedly but could not break Viet Nam”s defence.

The visitors had a good chance to score in the 35th minute. Shrahili Ibrahim Ali had a free kick outside the 16m50 area. Shuhail Abdullah Jaman received the pass and head-butted the ball, but it went out.

The closest Viet Nam came to scoring in the opening half was when Le Cong Vinh bumbled the ball after Nguyen Anh Duc hit the crossbar.

Viet Nam began the second half with greater purpose but were forced onto the defensive on several occasions.

The draw gave Viet Nam two points in Group C following a narrow 1-0 defeat to Japan in Tokyo, and a 1-1 draw with Qatar last week.

Saudi Arabia”s point tally now also stands at two after losing to Qatar 0-1 and drawing with Japan 0-0.

In other group C matches yesterday, Japan defeated Qatar 1-0 to lead the pack with seven points. The four group C teams, Viet Nam, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Qatar, are competing in a two-leg round-robin, with the winner securing a berth to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This is the first time Viet Nam has qualified for the final stage of an Olympic qualifier.

Viet Nam will get a visit from Japan to play the second-leg match of the qualifier on November 7. 

 VNS