The Vietnamese national football team’s new head coach, Toshiya Miura
from Japan, had a perfect debut as his team thrashed Myanmar 6-0 in a
friendly match at Go Dau Stadium in Binh Duong on July 2.
A hat
trick from star striker Le Cong Vinh, a double from striker and new face
Nguyen Hai Anh and one from substitute midfielder Nguyen Van Quyet
completed the rout, which most of the 10,000 fans did not anticipate.
Myanmar
have troubled Vietnam at every meeting between the teams, but on July 2
under new coach Radojko Abramovic, the young Burmese side completely
lacked their usual fighting spirit.
Both coaches did as they promised in the pre-match news conference, fielding a lot of new faces in the match.
But
Toshiya, who seemed not to want to have a slip-up in his debut game in
front of home fans, chose to play the most experienced players in all
three parts despite featuring some new faces in the starting line-up.
With
Le Phuoc Tu and Au Van Hoan in the defence, Le Tan Tai and Pham Thanh
Luong in the midfield and star striker Le Cong Vinh in the front line,
it was no wonder that Vietnam was a strong team.
Defender Dinh
Tien Thanh, strikers Nguyen Hai Anh and Vu Minh Tuan were new faces in
the first half with two more new faces Hoang Minh Tam and Dinh Thanh
Trung coming on the pitch in the second half.
So it did not take
much time for the hosts to swing the game to their favour and quickly
create chances. Tuan and Anh missed them all, but the latter soon made
amends with a powerful volley from inside the penalty area to open the
scoring.
On the 15th minute, Anh doubled the score with his
second after he headed in Vinh’s cross. And only four minutes later,
Vinh got his name on the score sheet after he scraped a scuffed shot
into the net to make it 3-0.
Myanmar tried to respond but barely
drew any saves from Vietnamese goalkeeper Tran Nguyen Manh. Their main
striker Kyaw Ko Ko failed to cause problems for Vietnamese defence.
The
home team continued their domination and in the 33rd minute, Vinh
collected the ball at the edge of the box and fired a low shot beyond
the Burmese goalkeeper to extend the lead to 4-0, which remained
unchanged until the break.
Myanmar made four changes after the
restart but this did not improve their attacking ability. Vietnam soon
took control of the match and had their fifth goal six minutes into the
second half as Vinh completed his hat trick with an easy shot inside the
penalty area.
Coach Toshyia made three more changes, bringing on
another new faces defender Bui Van Long and striker Dinh Thanh Trung as
well as Quyet, who completed an accurate header from substitute
midfielder Nguyen Vu Phong’s corner on the right wing.
Myanmar made their fifth and final substitution with eight minutes remaining but could not even find a consolation goal.
The easy victory without any injuries must also please clubs and coaches, as the V-League will resume this weekend.-VNA