Viet Nam produced their best performance so far at the ongoing Southeast
Asian Football Championship to beat the Philippines 3-1 in the last
group game, marching into the semi-finals as Group A winners.
Midfielder Ngo Hoang Thinh opened the scoring with a
long-distance shot from 30 yards out in the first half. Vu Minh Tuan
doubled the advantage five minutes into the second half before Pham
Thanh Luong made it 3-0 after just 57 minutes.
The Philippines’ only goal was scored by substitute Paul Mulders on the mark of the hour.
With the loss, the Philippines enter the last four as runners-up.
“Congratulations to Viet Nam. They had a very good game
today and the opening goal was not something we had expected when it
came within the first 10 minutes and from 30 yards out and that killed
our strategy,” Thomas Dooley said. “In the last 20 minutes we created
some chances and could have added goals.”
Despite beating the Philippines, Viet Nam’s head coach
Toshyia Miura was not completely pleased with his team’s performance.
But he protected the striker Le Cong Vinh, who could have scored at
least one goal if he had been faster.
“I do not think Viet Nam have any strikers faster than Vinh. He has performed well in the last three games,” Miura said.
The Philippines made only two changes with captain Ro Gier
and Mark Andrew Hartmann starting the match, while Viet Nam had three
changes in the starting line-up as Nguyen Van Quyet, Ngo Hoang Thinh and
Nguyen Xuan Thanh began the match.
Only a minute into the match Vinh had an excellent chance, but missed it partly because of his lack of pace.
In the next minutes, Viet Nam, who quickly settled into
their passing game, pushed the opponent back to their own half and
constantly put the Philippines’s goal under threat.
It looked like it would be a matter of time for Viet Nam to
get the opening goal and it came after just nine minutes following a
mistake from Misagh Medina Bahadoran.
Bahadoran cleared the ball to Thinh, who played it to Vinh.
The striker passed it back to Thinh. The midfielder took the ball
forwards with one touch and without being marked and a huge space ahead,
Thinh unleashed a low, fierce shot that flew straight into the low
corner of the far post beyond the reach of keeper Patrick Phillip Bravo
Deyto.
The goal sparked the game as the Philippines began pressing
Viet Nam, but their simple play was easily countered by a concentrated
Vietnamese backline and hard-working midfielders.
It was the hosts who dictated the game and had the best
chances, only for Filipino defenders to read the game well and take
timely challenges to keep the 1-0 score unchanged into the break.
Just like the first half, Viet Nam started brighter and got
the second goal five minutes into the half. Thinh, who scored the
opening goal, turned the provider by passing the ball to Tuan on the
right wing. The striker raced past static Sato and fired in a low shot
to the far corner of the net to double the lead.
Only seven minutes later, Luong made it 3-0 for the 2008
champions. Right winger Que Ngoc Hai passed the ball to Vinh, who passed
it to Quyet, who crossed it to Luong, who saw space ahead and drove in
the ball that stunned Deyto.
The Philippines got their consolation goal through
substitute Paul Mulders, who volleyed in Jerry Ruben Lucena’s
right-flank cross.
It was all the Philippines could do. Viet Nam easily saw out the match and marched into the semi-finals as Group A winners.
In the other match, Indonesia beat Laos 5-1 to leave the tournament with their dignity intact.
VNS/VNN