Vietnam and RI move closer to Tiger Cup semis
Vietnam and RI move closer to Tiger Cup semis
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Vietnam and Indonesia effectively sealed berths in the semifinals of the 1996 Tiger Cup with solid wins in their group matches on Saturday.
Vietnam thwarted a threatened Myanmarese counterattack to win 4-1 while Indonesia beat Cambodia in fairly unsatisfactory style 3-0.
Vietnam top group A with seven points from three games, with Indonesia, with two wins and a match in hand, lying second with six point.
Vietnam scored in the sixth minute against Myanmar through Nguyen Hui Dang and 10 minutes later had a second from league top scorer Le Huynh Duc.
That was sufficient to rally the Myanmarese, whose striker Maung Maung Htay almost snapped the goal new with a stunning 20-yard volley in the 25th minute.
The Myanmarese promise never materialized and Vietnam took an unbreakable strangehold on the game with goals from Tan Cong Minh a minute after the restart and a second from Dang in the 62nd minute.
The Myanmarese defeat could be put down to their unfamiliar colors: the match was delayed 20 minutes after both teams walked onto the pitch wearing the same strip.
The commentator's ultimate nightmare was only avoided when Myanmar agreed to play the match in the strip of the local league side whose ground were hosting the group ties.
Indonesia promised a goal avalanche against lowly Cambodia as one of the few Southeast Asian sides who looked skillful enough to shake the regional dominance of Thailand, unbeaten in group B.
It looked like delivering on that promise when by the 24th minute it was already 2-0 up thanks to goals from Swiss-based striker Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto in the 15th minute and Peri Sandria in the 24th.
But the Indonesians flagged and only a 60th-minute penalty by Eri Irianto after Kurniawan was brought down partly restored the team's reputation as potential giant-killers.
Results
In Singapore: Vietnam 4 Myanmar 1 (2-1) Scorers: Vietnam - Dang (6, 62), Duc (16), Ming (46). Myanmar - Htay (25); Attendance: 4000 Indonesia 3 Cambodia 0 (2-0) Scorers: Kurniawan (15), Sandria (24), Irianto (60); Attendance: 4000
Group standings (Tabulated under played, won, drawn, lost, points); (top two qualify for the semifinals of the Tiger Cup to be played Sept. 13): Vietnam 3 2 1 0 7 Indonesia 2 2 0 0 6 Myanmar 2 1 0 1 3 Laos 2 0 1 1 1 Cambodia 3 0 0 3 0