Singapore VS Vietnam

Singapore U23 football team caused an upset against the tournament favourites Vietnam U23 in the 24th SEA Games on Monday.

The Vietnam team went into the group stages in the Olympic qualifiers (Asian Zone). The only Southeast Asian team to do so and in that tournament they narrowly lose to Japan Olympic Squad by 1-0.

Having trashed Malaysia U23 on Saturday, their confidence level must be sky high. Yet they were brought down to earth by a unified Singapore team whose 0-0 draw against Laos on Saturday had nearly put them out of contention.

The Singapore team changed formation. Coach Raddy dropped the ineffective Agu Casmir and in come the defensive midfielder Isa Halim to beef up the defence in face of the Vietnam's onslaught.

That onslaught never came and the Vietnam team went into a slumber in the first half. Instead, it was the Singapore team that were 3-0 up by half time. Thanks to horrendous defending by Vietnam and a Shahril Ishak's sweet blast just before half time. The only glitch in the first half is Isa Halim's double yellow cards which send him off for early showers. The referee was inconsistent on several occasions. He awarded yellow cards on some illegal tackles and miss out on similar ones later on.

The Vietnam team regrouped after half-time. The feared attack of the Vietnamese began to pound attacks after attacks on the Singapore's goalmouth. The Singapore team played well defensively, although at times seem vulnerable by some quick movements of the Vietnamese players. Nevertheless, The Vietnamese team finally break the deadlock through PT Binh.

Hassan Sunny, the Singaporean goalkeeper was kept even busy by the Vietnam team after that goal. But he respond tremendously, saving at the feet and spreading himself very big on one on one situations. He was alert at all times and even contributed to the counter-attack tactics with his power kicks from his box.

The game gets more interesting when Vietnam had a player send off for elbowing a Singaporean and the most puzzled decision came when the referee awarded the Vietnam side a late penalty even though the replays show it's a situation of ball to hand,an unintentional handball which in that case was not the defining situation that would cause the Vietnam side a goal. In most cases, referee will ignore the situation. Furthermore, the Vietnam side never called for it.

As always, the Vietnam side converted and this turn out to be the last kick of the game.

Singapore will next faced Malaysia on Saturday while Vietnam took on Laos.