Coaches, fans and players have been celebrating its 7-1 crush on Myanmar Thursday at the Southeast Asian Football Championship, Suzuki Cup for two days now.
Coach Henrique Calisto is playing on field with his players on Friday, a day after the 7-1 victory over Myanmar in Hanoi Photo: Tuoi Tre
Laughter and jokes sporadically interrupted a training session on the My Dinh national stadium on Friday as coach, officials and players recalled the recent 7-1 win against Myanmar.
“We scored goals in situations set up exactly as what we had practiced and the goals just came in as easily as picking fruits,” Tai Em said.
Midfielder Tan Tai, who did not score but passed the ball twice to mates Vu Phong and Trong Hoang to convert into goals, showed bruises on his right toe and hips and proudly pronounced “It seems that the pleasure of victory made me unaware of the pain.”
“Only when I got back to my hotel did I start feeling how painful it is,” he admitted.
Tai attributed his injury to “fouls [on the Myanmar’s part] that the referee couldn’t notice.”
They all admitted that midfielder Trong Hoang who substituted Tai in the second half, was the ‘holy grail’ of the team.
Hoang picked up two goals just 15 minutes after setting foot on the field.
However, for Austrian Alfred Riedl, former coach of Vietnam and now coach of Indonesia competing in group A, winning the opening match is really not the time to cheer, but to prepare.
Riedl, who is also enjoying cheers after Indonesia’s 5-1 win over Malaysia in the opening match day, sent his congratulations to Vietnam.
“Vietnamese players as Minh Phuong, Tai Em, and Tan Tai become much experienced and mature on competition,” he said.
“What I like most from Vietnam is their players always speed up ahead to find more goals even when they are in a big lead”.
“A Vietnamese team in their best form and high spirit like that are redoubtable opponents to any challenging rivals,” he added.
Vietnam will take on the Philippines on Sunday and Singapore on December 8 in group B in Hanoi.