Vietnamese footballers lost 2-3 to Myanmar Wednesday at the SJC-Eximbank Cup 2008’s opening match on Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City.
It was a sad day for Vietnamese fans as they expected a landslide victory especially in the beginning when the home team continuously held various attacks on their enemy.
However, Myanmar later struck back and opened a score at the 14th minute. Due to a weak defense from midfielder Chi Cong against a volley, Myanmar Tun Tun Win immediately took advantage and succeeded.
At the second half, Viet Nam’s coach Henrique Calisto decided to replace striker Viet Thang with Ngoc Thanh and midfielder Minh Chau with Minh Duc. This wise decision enabled striker Cong Vinh a precious chance to make a volley to even the score at the 63rd minute.
Six minutes later, Myanmar striker Yan Paing shocked Vietnamese fans and players by another score right after easily extricating himself from a sloppy check by Viet striker Phuoc Tu. Tu made his mistake again when failing to thwart striker Kyaw Thiha and helplessly let the latter up the score to 3 at the 91st minute.
Hope for Viet Nam appeared one minute later thanks to a penalty by striker Cong Vinh. However, even when Vinh did a successful penalty, the final score 2-3 did not help Viet Nam pocket a success.
The tournament will run till October 5.
