Van Khai (L) celebrates after scoring a goal for the Vietnamese U.21 team in yesterday’s 2nd International U.21 Thanh Nien Cup 2008 opener at Tu Do Stadium in Hue city.

The Vietnamese U.21 team launched its international U.21 Thanh Nien Cup campaign with a fighting 4-2 victory of Malaysia in the tournament opener yesterday.

In front of a packed Tu Do Stadium in the central province of Hue, the home team were confident and took control of the match early, putting the Malaysians under constant pressure.

It was a good start for the defending champions who won the first edition of the regional invitational tournament that this year features teams from Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Iran.

Vietnam are in Group A with Malaysia and Thailand, so both teams began aggressively to have the advantage of a win before playing Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand.

Vietnamese midfielders Duc Tai and Thanh Hung were in good form and helped Vietnam dominate the midfield.

Tai’s excellent work on the left flank often ended with good passes to his teammate up front where Duc Thien, with support from Phuc Hiep and Van Khai, caused a lot of difficulties to the Malaysian defense.

Just six minutes into the match, Tu Do Stadium got extremely excited when Thien’s volley put Vietnam ahead after a clean pass from Duc Tai.

Shouts and cheers of “Vietnam! Vietnam!” rented the air, but the joy did not last long. Just two minutes later, Malaysian favorite striker Bin Saarani headed home an equalizer for his team.

The Vietnamese team didn’t want to lose their advantage. They continued to put more pressure and took the lead again with a goal by Van Khai after Hiep’s pass split through Malaysia’s defense and found the skipper in a good position.

Less than five minutes later, the fans at the stadium and TV viewers all over the country cheered again as Thien goat his second goal of the match to make it 3-1.

Kavichelvan then kept the tempo of the match going with a goal in the 29^th minute, aided by a lapse in concentration by Vietnamese defenders and goalkeeper Van Hung.

In the second half, Vietnam continued to dominate; and the fourth goal by Van Khai from a penalty kick in the 63^rd minute sealed an emphatic victory that will give the team more confidence going into the next match.

Thien was voted the player of the match for his excellent performance.

“I am very pleased with what my players demonstrated. However, we have a lot more to do, especially improving the defenders,” coach Luu Quoc Tan said after the match.

Malaysia’s coach Rajagopal Krishnasamy said: “The loss serves us right for not playing as well as we usually do. I will make necessary changes in the encounter against Thailand.”

He noted that Vietnam had “good players like Van Khai and Duc Tai.”

Reported by Quang Huy