Courtesy: Viet Nam News

Indoor football team ready for SEA Games

(05-03-2007)

HA NOI — Viet Nam’s indoor football team gathered for a training session in HCM City last Thursday in preparation for the upcoming 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

The 20-member team held drills at the sport centre of District 6 under coach Nguyen Van Long and two assistants, Nguyen Hong Son, who played at the AFC Futsal Championships last year, and Nguyen Duc Duy.

Futsal, indoor five-a-side football, is played on hard pitch and marked by skilful, short and rapid play.

Club teams HCM City Police and Da Nang provided nine players for the squad while Ha Noi’s Dimah and S&C teams contributed five.

Other players are from Can Tho, Ca Mau and Tien Giang, many of whom showed good form at the National Futsal Championship in HCM City last year.

The team will compete in the Southeast Asian Futsal Championship (AFF Futsal) in Malaysia next month in preparation for the 24th SEA Games in Bangkok this December, where futsal will be included on the roster for the first ever time.

Viet Nam will also send its men’s and women’s squads to the Asian Indoor Games later this year.

Last year, the Viet Nam Football Federation organised national championships to recruit the country’s best players for the AFF Futsal Championship. In the last tourney, hosted by Thailand, Viet Nam suffered losses to Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia in group competition.

In the past, Viet Nam has hosted the AFF Futsal Championship and the Asian Football Confederation Futsal Championships.

The upcoming tournaments will be a great chance for Vietnamese players to prepare for the Asian Indoor Games in Macao in September and the third Asian Indoor Games hosted by Viet Nam in 2009. — VNS



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com