V-League 2009 is going to start. It is said that this year’s championship will mainly be a race among five clubs, current champion Binh Duong, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), Dong Tam Long An (DT-LA), Hai Phong and Da Nang.

T&T Hanoi’s coach Trieu Quang Ha (left) will have a chance to compete with Binh Duong’s coach Francesco Vital in V-League 2009.

V-League 2009 is going to start. It is said that this year’s championship will mainly be a race among five clubs, current champion Binh Duong, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), Dong Tam Long An (DT-LA), Hai Phong and Da Nang.

The favorites for V-League 2009 championship are not new, but this year’s tournament promises to be attractive because it will involve competitions between talented domestic coaches such as Tran Cong Minh (DTLA) and Le Huynh Duc (Da Nang) and foreign coaches like Alfred Riedl (Hai Phong), Francesco Vital (Binh Duong) and Dusit (HAGL).

Foreign coaches put to the test

Among the three foreign coaches, only Thailand’s Dusit is working as a coach for the first time. But he is familiar to Vietnamese football fans as a player.

Binh Duong club’s coach Vital was the coach of the East Asia Bank club five years ago. Austrian coach Alfred Riedl is a former coach of the national squad and Khatoco Khanh Hoa Club in 2004.

Experts say Portuguese coach Vital has an advantage over the two others.

Binh Duong is the current V-League champion with a strong team, including some members of the national squad, such as Nhu Thanh, Quang Thanh, Chi Cong, Vu Phong, Cong Minh and Truong Giang, and high-quality foreign players like Philani, Lima and Kesley (recently granted Vietnamese citizenship). Binh Duong is the odds-on favorite ahead of the championship.

Before leading HAGL, Dusit worked as a coaching assistant there. The club’s chairman Doan Nguyen Duc has recruited some reputed players, namely Lee Nguyen, Thanh Binh, Van Truong, Viet Cuong, Van Nho and Nirut to realise his V-League championship ambition.

Young coaches on the rise

In V-League 2008, coach Le Huynh Duc and Da Nang Club proved their ability, though they came in fourth. Huynh Duc and his club were praised for their ability and management method.

Former fullback Tran Cong Minh became the coach of DTLA after coach Patricio was rejected for his poor management of footballers. Cong Minh and his team were winners in their last five matches in V-League 2008, putting DTLA in second position. For this achievement, Cong Vinh will continue to skipper the team in V-League 2009.

Huynh Duc and Cong Minh are less experienced than foreign coaches as Vital or Alfred Riedl, but they better understand their players than the foreign coaches.

Besides the above five clubs, there are some darkhorse candidates, including Khatoco Khanh Hoa, The Cong, Song Lam Nghe An, and Nam Dinh.

VietNamNet/DT