Le Huynh Duc and Nguyen Van Sy, who helped Da Nang and Ninh Binh to win the V-League and First Division championships, have become Henrique Calisto’s assistants.

Da Nang club’s coach Le Huynh Duc.

Calisto said he has finalized a list of 30 members for the U23 team, which will represent Vietnam at the SEA Games 2009 in Laos. The coach will make the list public after checking whether any selected player will sustain injuries after V-League and the First Division tournament.

Duc and Sy were former members of the national squad. They were also the favorite players of Calisto in 2002 when Vietnam won the bronze medal at the Tiger Cup (AFF Cup at present).

The Portuguese coach said he did not choose Huynh Duc and Sy based on Da Nang’s national championship or Ninh Binh’s First Division championship. Calisto said the two young coaches are capable and he wanted to employ them as his assistants a long time ago. Not until now, when they have fulfilled their responsibility to their clubs, can they join the national squad.

Huynh Duc will be the first assistant and Sy the second assistant to Calisto. They will oversee the national squad while Calisto is busy with the U23 team at the SEA Games 2009.

The national squad will convene in late 2009 to prepare for the qualifier round of the Asian Cup 2011. However, the two assistants will meet with the U23 team on September 4. The coaching board of the U23 squad will not change, with assistants Tran Van Khanh, Nguyen Duc Thang, Phan Thanh Hung and Ngo Le Bang.

The team will have a drilling trip to China from September 14-24. During this time, it will have two friendly matches with local teams. The squad will go to Laos to attend the Pre-SEA Games football tournament with the hosts Laos, U23 Thailand and U23 Malaysia in October.

The team will return to Vietnam on October 21 to play against South Korea’s Chunnam Dragons. It will take part in the VFF Cup in Hanoi in early November, against Olympic China, U23 Singapore and U23 Thailand from November 3-7. The team will then go to Laos on November 28 to participate in the 25th SEA Games.

At that time, the national squad will group up in HCM City on October 1 to prepare for the HCM City International Football Cup from October 20-24. It will go to Hanoi for the first-leg match of the Asian Cup 2011 against Syria in the national My Dinh Stadium on November 14. One day later, the team will go to Syria to play the second match on November 18.

The team will be in Hanoi on December 20 to go to Lebanon on January 1, 2010 for the second-leg match against Lebanon in the qualifier round of the Asian Cup 2011 on January 6. The team will play the last qualifier match of the Asian Cup 2011 against China at the My Dinh stadium in Hanoi.

PV