Recently he injured a ligament in drills with T&T Hanoi club and now the national football team’s star striker will not play in the friendly match against Germany’s Frankfurt on May 12.

Recently he injured a ligament in drills with T&T Hanoi club and now the national football team’s star striker will not play in the friendly match against Germany’s Frankfurt on May 12.

Cong Vinh apologizes for kneeling

Le Cong Vinh (yellow).

After Cong Vinh’s scandal in which the striker prostrated himself before a V-League referee, many people suggested removing him from the national team for a while, but Coach Henrique Calisto didn’t agree.

The coach said this scandal was only related to his club and he would continue using Cong Vinh in the upcoming match against Frankfurt.

However, Cong Vinh will not play because of his injury. Calisto checked Vinh’s injury carefully before making the decision to bench him.

Another halfback of the national team, Minh Phuong, was also benched for an injury.

The coach will convene 22 players, but he would not use any player from SHB Da Nang and Binh Duong because these teams play at both the V-League and the AFC Cup (Asian Football Confederation Cup). Around one third of his players are new faces.

Calisto will also not have language assistant Ngo Le Bang, who is now with the national football team.

Frankfurt will come to Vietnam on May 11 to meet the Vietnamese national squad at Hanoi’s My Dinh stadium the next day. The team will go to HCM City on May 13 to play Dong Tam Long An at Thong Nhat stadium on May 14.

Eintracht Frankfurt is led by Coach Micheal Skibbee, former coach of Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leveerkusen and on the coaching board of the German national squad from 2000 to 2004.

The tickets for the two games in Hanoi and HCM City will be sold at 200,000, 150,000, 100,000 and 50,000 dong/ticket.

PV