Vietnam’s national under-23 football squad aims to reach the Southeast Asia Games final by beating Singapore on Monday evening, December 14.

Coach Henrique Calisto.

Four teams remain in contention for the SEA Games gold medal:

Laos, which reached the semifinals via a startling 2-0 victory over Indonesia and draws against Myanmar and Singapore;

Malaysia, which defeated Thailand, Cambodia and Timor L’este but lost to Vietnam in Group A play;

Singapore, second to Laos in Group B with a win over Myanmar and ties with Laos and Indonesia; and

the favorite, Vietnam, happy with decisive victories over Malaysia, Cambodia and East Timor and a hard-fought draw with Thailand.

Both semifinal matches will be played on Monday, December 14. The Vietnam-Singapore match will be aired on VTV-2 and HTV-2 at six p.m.

The Vietnamese squad’s Portugese coach, Henrique Calisto, aims to defeat Singapore without going into overtime. The two teams last met a month ago in a hard-fought VFF Cup match won by Vietnam 1-0.

Calisto has seen the Singapore U-23’s matches against Laos, Indonesia and Myanmar and says the islanders have improved remarkably since the VFF Cup. In particular, Singapore has a powerful defence line. They often attack by long passes and can capitalize on unexpected opportunities. Vietnam, therefore, must attack confidently to finish the game as soon as possible.

Though Vietnam may lose halfbacks Trong Hoang and Quy Suu due to injury and fevers, but Calisto is cautiously confident that the U-23’s are ready for this semi-final match.

“I’m not afraid of Singapore because in football, if you are afraid of losing, you defeat yourself,” Calisto said. “I only worry about how we will cope with them on the playing field. I don’t have many players who are good at high-up balls but there are other ways to get into Singapore’s goal.”

“The boys were practicing confidently today,” he added. “Footballers have to respect themselves first. I don’t change their playing manner, I only help them to comfortable with a new plan. I’m satisfied with our players at this moment. This is a vital game. I don’t like to make a prediction. We have different approaches to the match.”

In case of a tie-breaker shoot-out, Calisto has chosen Long Giang, Cong Minh, Hoang Quang, Xuan Hop and Thanh Binh. for this case.

The starters for the Vietnam-Singapore match tonight:

U-23 Vietnam: goalkeeper Tan Truong, fullbacks Hoang Quang, Long Giang, Xuan Hop, Dinh Dong, halfbacks Tien Thanh, Thanh Hung, Cong Minh, Thanh Binh, Thanh Luong, striker Dinh Tung.

U-23 Singapore: goalkeeper Hyrul Juma’at; fullbacks Faritz, Eddie, Safuwan, Irwan Shah; halfbacks Isa Halim - Fazli Ayob, Hariss Harun, Shahdan, Shaiful; striker Khairul Nizam.

The winners of the Vietnam-Singapore and Laos-Malaysia contests will play for the gold medal on Thursday, December 17. The losers will contest the bronze on the same day.

Football basics

Matches last 90 minutes, split into two 45-minute halves with a 15 minute half-time interval. Extra-time is used if there is no winner after 90 minutes. This extra period is 30 minutes, split into two 15 minute halves. If extra-time does not produce a winner, a penalty shoot-out takes place, where five players from each team are selected to alternate shots on goal from the penalty spot against the opposition goalkeeper. In that instance, the team with the most goals from the ‘shoot-out’ is declared the winner. If after five kicks each, they are still tied, the mode changes to ‘sudden-death’ penalty kicks until one team scores an unanswered goal.

LookAtVietnam/VNE