Vietnam football

Major streets of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and virtually any localities across Vietnam have once again been a sea of red on Saturday night as the national football team won the Asean Football Federation Championship for the first time since 2008.

The Golden Stars beat Malaysia 1-0 in the second leg of the final on their home turf in Hanoi with a brilliant volley by Nguyen Anh Duc, securing a 3-2 aggregate triumph to win the regional title, exactly ten years after their first trophy in 2008.

As Vietnam is known for celebrating any victories of their beloved football team, Saturday’s feat has unsurprisingly sparked nationwide celebrations.

An audio-visual feast, with the red color seen everywhere and the space filled with the bizarre sound sound of vuvuzela-like horns, was simultaneously held across the country shortly after the last whistle of the Vietnam – Malaysia clash at the 40,000-seat My Dinh National Stadium was blown at round 9:30 pm.

This is what known as di bao , literally translated as “going like a storm,” in Vietnamese.

The celebration involves people taking to the street, usually on their motorbikes, with the national flags and anything that can ‘make some noise,’ literally, to glorify the triumphs of the country’s national football team.

On Saturday night, people, with national flags in their hands and flag- or heart-themed stickers glued on their cheeks and foreheads, flooded main streets in big cities and provinces countrywide, shouting in triumph.

Some blew their horns while others enthusiastically beat their ‘drums,’ which were in fact pots and pans.

Below are photos of the celebrations taken by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper:

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GONE: Jose Mourinho has been sacked by Tottenham Hotspur after 17 months in the job. AFP/VNA Photo

Paul Kennedy

LONDON  Tottenham Hotspur Football Club yesterday sacked manager Jose Mourinho.

The bombshell dismissal comes less than a week before Tottenham are set to take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

Spurs have struggled in 2021, slipping down the Premier League and also crashing out of the Europa League.

The Portuguese boss, who also managed Porto, Chelsea twice, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United, had been manager at White Hart Lane for 17 months.

A statement released via the Tottenham website read: “The Club can announce that Jose Mourinho and his coaching staff Joao Sacramento, Nuno Santos, Carlos Lalin and Giovanni Cerra have been relieved of their duties.

“Ryan Mason will take First Team training today and a further update will follow in due course.”

Chairman Daniel Levy added: “Jose and his coaching staff have been with us through some of our most challenging times as a Club.

“Jose is a true professional who showed enormous resilience during the pandemic. On a personal level I have enjoyed working with him and regret that things have not worked out as we both had envisaged.

“He will always be welcome here and we should like to thank him and his coaching staff for their contribution.”

The sacking comes just a day after Tottenham announced they would be joining the breakaway European Super League along with Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City, as well as six other teams from Spain and Italy.

There is no confirmation Mourinho’s departure is connected to the controversial move to join the elite European competition,

Mourinho replaced Mauricio Pochettino in November 2019 and had a contract until the end of the 2022-23 season.

A permanent replacement for ex-Chelsea and Manchester United boss Mourinho is expected to be named in the summer.

RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann is favourite to take over in north London, according to bookmakers Betfair.

Leicester City’s Brendan Rodgers is second favourite and links have also been made to former Spurs defender Ledley King, Glasgow Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and former Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri. VNS

HAGL’s young Vietnamese stars are in fine form and enjoying their football. Photo thethaovanhoa.vn

Peter Cowan

For a long time, the huge support Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) have here in Việt Nam baffled me.

Since I arrived in the country, they haven’t finished any higher than seventh place in the V.League 1 and play in the Central Highlands city of Pleiku, not exactly one of the country’s biggest or most bustling cities.

Sure, I understood many of the national team’s top youngsters have been moulded at the club, but still, this is the country’s second-best supported team? A team made up of prodigious talents who always seem to fall short of their potential? Playing for a team literally named after a large corporation?

This season though, it’s finally starting to make sense to me.

Those talents are finally living up to the hype and HAGL sit atop the V.League 1 table, three points clear of second-placed Viettel after defeating Hà Nội FC 1-0 in Pleiku on Sunday.

Yes, Hà Nội are languishing in eighth place and barring a miracle are out of the title race, but the match was still seen as an important yardstick for HAGL due to the capital side’s dominance of domestic football in recent years.

Tickets were in such hot demand that some fans reportedly queued up from Saturday night just to get theirs, while some tickets reportedly sold on the black market for VNĐ1.5 million, a huge markup and frankly something the league shouldn’t let happen, but still an indicator of how big this game was.

As is so often the way with much-hyped matches, the actual product on the pitch failed to live up to expectations to a degree and we weren’t treated to the free-scoring spectacle many had hoped for.

That being said though, HAGL’s ability to grind out the goal to nil victory shows how this season they can actually go all the way.

Part of why HAGL are so loved is the brand of football they have played over the years or at least the brand they have espoused.

While they have never tried to walk it in like Arsenal circa mid 2000s, the Pleiku based side have been renowned for being sticklers for style and aesthetics over everything, sometimes to the cost of winning.

At the start of the 2020 season, South Korean coach Lee Tae-hoon proclaimed that his HAGL team would put aside this focus on beauty in favour of playing “like warriors” and with a “stronger spirit”.

Things didn’t quite work out for Lee, who was shown the door last November, but his replacement has shown that you don’t have to follow the Sam Allardyce school of management to produce a winning team.

Kiatisuk ‘Zico’ Senamuang has moulded essentially the same group of players Lee and several of his predecessors struggled to do anything with into a cohesive, exciting and, most importantly, winning team.

HAGL may still ship more goals than they would like, but under Senamuang they can outscore anyone and have just enough nous to hold onto leads.

Best of all, the attacking success is being driven by Vietnamese players Nguyễn Công Phượng, Nguyễn Văn Toàn, Vũ Văn Thanh and Lương Xuân Trường, who scored an absolute peach of a winner on Sunday.

While Brazilian forward Washington Brandao has had a great season so far for HAGL, it’s those Vietnamese stars who have been at the heart of the team’s attacking verve, with Toàn, in particular, showing huge strides in his development from a mere speed merchant to a canny forward.

While personally, I’ll never be able to cheer too loudly for a team named after a company, this season has finally shown me what all the fuss about HAGL is. Now they just have to go on and win the whole thing. VNS

HCM City FC’s coach Alexandre Polking criticised Nam Định after the 3-2 loss. Photo thanhnien.vn

NAM ĐỊNH — HCM City FC coach Alexandre Polking slammed Nam Định for time-wasting at the end of his side’s 3-2 defeat on Sunday, but Nam Định coach Nguyễn Văn Sỹ insisted what his side did was within the limits of fair play.

At Thiên Trường stadium in Nam Định, the home team won thanks to two goals by Ossou Konan and one from Rodrigo Dias while Lâm Ti Phông’s brace wasn’t enough for HCM City to take anything.

The turning point came after a beautiful free-kick from Rodrigo Dias in the 67th minute to make the score 3-2. Tempers flared in the dying minutes and Phan Văn Hiếu of Nam Định and City star Lee Nguyễn received red cards in extra time.

After the match, Polking said he wasn’t happy to see the home team wasting time by committing fouls to preserve their lead.

“What I saw here today in the last 12 minutes is not good for the league at all. It’s a shame for me to see that. I would never do that for a team to win a game. Never,” he said, referring to time-wasting from Nam Định.

Polking congratulated Nam Định’s players and said the referee did the right thing in adding on a lot of extra time but lambasted the home team’s efforts to slow the game by throwing the ball away when it went out of play and players staying down.

“It’s not good for the league he said,” adding, “this is (from) 20 years ago.”

Nam Định’s coach Nguyễn Văn Sỹ disagreed with Polking’s statement and said his opponents would have done the same thing if roles were reversed.

“HCM City would have done that too if they had been in the same situation,” Sỹ said.

“The dedication of the players in this match was amazing. I hope they keep their determination in the next matches. This is a worthy result for the club and the fans of Nam Định.

“They said my team bought time, but they also have to look in the mirror. HCM City also injured my players. What we did to preserve the score is completely within the limits of football,” said the 49-year-old.

Nam Định currently sit sixth in the table with 15 points after 10 games, while HCM City are in 12th place with only 10 points – only one point away from bottom.

In the next match, Nam Định will meet Than Quảng Ninh, while HCM City will face defending champions Viettel. VNS

Trần Văn Cao Sang (black hat), and member of group I Love Kon Tum give gifts to poor children in Kon Tum. — VNA/VNS Photo

KON TUM — A charity group in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum has helped poor and disadvantaged children stay in school.

Tôi yêu Kon Tum (I Love Kon Tum) was founded by 41-year-old Trần Văn Cao Sang and run out of the group’s headquarters at a stall at 29 Nguyễn Trãi Street, Kon Tum City.

Sang and his friends have organised many volunteer activities to help poor and disadvantaged children, including giving them free clothes, paying their school fees and searching for other donors.

Sang said during a visit to the Kon Tum Province’s Child Care and Sponsor Centre 15 years ago, he and his friends were deeply saddened by the difficult circumstances the children suffered.

“They lacked a lot both physically and mentally but they always smiled. The image of innocent children playing together touched our hearts,” he said.

In early 2006, ‘I Love Kon Tum’ was established to run community-oriented activities, especially helping children in remote and extremely difficult areas in Kon Tum Province.

Sang was elected to be the head of the charity group.

Firstly, Sang came up with the idea to buy white T-shirts and print the ‘I Love Kon Tum’ logo on them to sell and raise money.

“At that time, white T-shirts with the ‘I Love Kon Tum’ logo were very popular among local residents, especially young people. Thousands of T-shirts were sold in a week,” he said.

“All the money was spent on giving gifts to poor children in remote areas,” Sang said.

In addition, the group has raised funds by selling paintings and organising volunteer music nights.

The group has gradually become more popular in the locality so local sponsors and some overseas Vietnameses have helped out.

The group has four main charity drives each year, one for the Tết (Lunar New Year) holidays, one at the start of summer, one during the Mid-Autumn Festival and a winter drive to gather warm clothes for kids.

The group has provided tonnes of blankets, clothes and essentials over the years, as well as more than VNĐ100 million to support local people who suffered heavy damage during flooding in late 2020.

“The clothes come from local residents. Most of the clothes are used, but still in good conditions and properly cleaned and ironed before being given away,” said Sang.

The group also supports 10 poor students with study costs to keep their university dreams alive.

Nurturing dreams

Trần Quyết Tiến, 22, residing in Trường Chinh Ward, Kon Tum City, unfortunately, suffered a severe injury after a football match.

He was taken to a hospital in HCM City for treatment at a cost of VNĐ50 million which his family had to borrow from friends. Doctors diagnosed Tiến with disc herniation and said he would likely be unable to walk without surgery. The family had no hope of treating for him due to the huge cost of the surgery.

After learning about Tiến, ‘I Love Kon Tum’ members called for sponsors to support his family and found an organisation that agreed to pay all his medical expenses.

“The moment the surgery was successful, everyone broke down. We were all happy when doctors said Tiến will be able to walk normally,” Sang said.

Tiến now studies at a medical college in central Đà Nẵng City with the dream of becoming a doctor to help local children.

A Vang, 23, has lived with his ill father and old grandparents in Mường Hoong Commune, Đắk Glei District, Kon Tum Province after his mother died in his childhood.

In 2016, A Vang became the first person in the commune to gain acceptance to a university, but as he lacked the money to pay tuition fees, he planned to give up his studies and start working.

The charity group members found a kindhearted individual to pay for all the tuition and accommodation fees for A Vang during his time at university.

“Without the people in the group, my life would have gone a darker way,” he said. He returned home after graduation and became a secondary school teacher.

Deputy Secretary of the Kon Tum Provincial Youth Union, A Xây appreciated the ‘I Love Kon Tum’ group, acknowledging that it had motivated poor children to overcome difficult circumstances and continue studying. —VNS