Vietnam’s Thanh Luong (L) celebrates with coach Hendrique Calisto after scoring a goal for Vietnam against Malaysia

Vietnam has a good chance of advancing to the 2008 Southeast Asian Suzuki Cup semifinals after beating Malaysia 3-2 in Monday’s group stage match on Thailand’s Phuket island.

Vietnam had five players in the midfield, which helped the team vie with the opponents in the area. Yet Vietnam struggled to dominate the midfield, failing to control the ball.

However, Vietnam took the lead with the opener thanks to a long-distance shot by Thanh Luong 17 minutes into the first half.

Vietnamese fans’ excitement was cut short when four minutes later the Malaysian team fought back fiercely with Indra Putra scoring an equalizer.

Accusing the Malaysian forward of being offside, Calisto complained and was ordered off the field by Singaporean referee Pandian.

Back on level with Vietnam, Malaysia began to improve their play while Vietnamese defenders Nhu Thanh and Minh Duc failed to keep close to the Malaysian players, causing trouble for Vietnam’s goalkeeper Hong Son.

It was still 1-1 at the end of the first half. In the second, Calisto put in midfielder Vu Phong to replace fatigued Minh Phuong while winger Quang Cuong replaced Viet Cuong on the right flank to stop prolific Putra of Malaysia.

Almost immediately, Phong proved to be a worthy addition with a perfect shot into the high corner of Malaysia’s net, regaining the lead for Vietnam.

But again, the Vietnamese players found themselves struggling to keep the Malaysian players at bay.

Meanwhile, goalie Son was too busy arguing with a Malaysian striker and held the ball longer than the allowed six seconds, which led to a free-kick for Malaysia as Putra capitalized on the opportunity to even up the score again just five minutes from time.

Shortly after, however, Phong was lucky once again when he lobbed the ball into Malaysia’s penalty area and it bounced high over Malaysia’s goalkeeper Zanial.

In a later match, Thailand beat Laos 6-0 to secure the top place in Group B and a berth in the semifinals with six points.

Reported by Quang Huy