The Vietnam Football Thread (Part2)

Part 1 here: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=600164

The top flight known internationally as the V.League has this year changed it's name to the Vietnamese Super League. Season kicked off on the 31st December

2012 Member Clubs

Becamex Binh Duong
SHB Da Nang
Cau Su Dong Thap
Vicem Hai Phong
Hanoi
Hanoi T&T
Hoang Anh Gia Lai
Khatoco Khanh Hoa
Kienlongbank Kien Giang
Vissai Ninh Binh
Saigon
Navibank Saigon
Song Lam Nghe An
Thanh Hoa

V.League winners and statistics:

Winners

1980: Tổng Cục Đường Sắt
1981/82: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội
1982/83: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội
1984: Công An Hà Nội
1985: Công Nghiệp Hà Nam Ninh
1986: Cảng Sài Gòn
1987/88: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội
1989: Đồng Tháp
1990: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội

1991: Hải Quan
1992: Công Nhân Quảng Nam Đà Nẵng
1993/94: Cảng Sài Gòn
1995: Công An Thành Phố
1996: Đồng Tháp
1997: Cảng Sài Gòn
1998: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội
1999: Sông Lam Nghệ An
2000: Sông Lam Nghệ An

2001/02: Cảng Sài Gòn
2003: Hoàng Anh Gia Lai
2004: Hoàng Anh Gia Lai
2005: Gạch Đồng Tâm Long An
2006: Gạch Đồng Tâm Long An
2007: Becamex Bình Dương
2008: Becamex Bình Dương
2009: SHB Ðà Nẵng
2010: Hà Nội T&T
2011: Sông Lam Nghệ An

Number of Titles

5: Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội
4: Cảng Sài Gòn
3: Sông Lam Nghệ An
2: Hoàng Anh Gia Lai, Gạch Đồng Tâm Long An, Đồng Tháp, Becamex Bình Dương, SHB Ðà Nẵng
1:Hải Quan, Công Nghiệp Hà Nam Ninh, Công An Hà Nội, Tổng Cục Đường Sắt, Công An Thành Phố, Hà Nội T&T


*5 times champions Câu Lạc Bộ Quân Đội are now known as Viettel after a mobile phone operator, before this they were known as The Cong, which represented the military.

*4 times champions Cảng Sài Gòn are now known as Ho Chi Minh City

*1 time champions Công An Hà Nội are now known simply as Hanoi after the merging of Ha Noi ACB and Hoa Phat Ha Noi in 2011.

*1 time championss Công An Thành Phố are better known as Ho Chi Minh City Police

This Tet break is killing me. Need to get the Super League going again!

This is the annoying thing with leagues in the region, always seem to be stop start, stop start. 3 games in now, round 4 starts tomorrow.

My cousin told me there's rumbling that the Department of Sports in Vietnam is forcing the league named be reversed to V-League.

Vietnamese Football: Can we please make headlines for the product on the field, not what goes on behind the scenes or in the stands? In the past week, all we see in international papers are the fights and now this. Please, just focus on football!

Yep, news report here:

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/18398/super-league-may-become-v-league-again.html

What I do find amazing is that you can get information of Vietnamese football in the English language local press - mainly Vietnamnet website - so it's great that they do talk about the game, but your right, it does seem to have more focus on off field events rather than on field. Since the season started, we have had general secretray quit, TV dispute. Sponsor threatening to pull out because they don't want their name branded with this competition for instance.

It goes on and on.

Not a good start to a new era really. Personally, I couldn't care less what the league is called and if they can put this much effort into this type of thing - we've been going a month now - then just imagine what could happen if they actually got behind the football.

Even though I was born in the States, my parents are very traditional. We were made to learn to read and write in Vietnamese. My writing has gone down hill over the years but I can still read the language. And I have soccer crazy cousins there so we skype about games every week. I regularly check Thanh Nien News, Bao Moi, and bongda.com. I also check out Erick Bui's blog, Vietfootball.blogspot.com.

Do they show V-League games on any of the two or three Vietnamese language channels that are carried on DirecTV in the US? It seems like there is mostly just news channels and cooking shows and stuff like that.

They don't. They don't even mention that there is a league that exists in Vietnam. It could be due to their anti-communist views. It's even hard to find news on Lee Nguyen since his return to the States. Super League games can sometimes be watched on vtc.com.vn.

Thank You

Looks like the V-League will be highly competitive this year. We're in the 7th stage and the pack is still close. No clear frontrunners. Will be interesting watching who'll take it all.

I was thinking that myself. Looking at the table, you have Da Nang and Hanoi T&T that will be up there again, but in theory you could have a surprise team that even at this stage if they put 3 or 4 wins together would put them to new heights which could sustain a challenge or at least make it interesting.

Looks like with the addition of Saigon aswell that I am hoping a tight race is in order, but at the moment we don't have a team thats clicked into top gear.

http://en.baomoi.com/Info/Top-football-competition-given-a-new-name/10/241342.epi

So we get some sort of closure with the league officially being named the Eximbank V-League. Too bad the news came 8 rounds into the 2012 season..

In other irritating Vietnamese football news, 2011 V-League champs SLNA fielded their reserve squad for their first match of the AFC Cup group stage, which they lost. Once again, Vietnamese clubs are placing little to no value on winning continental competitions. I guess it's good we're not allowed to have a squad in the ACL because we'd really embarrass ourselves..

Vietnam should play in the Challenge Cup? I dont know why that there are many mid tier nations being left out, too good for challenge cup maybe but too crap for asian cup qualiers?

Yep your right. You could change Vietnam to about another 12 nations aswell though.

Tonight, I thought I'd have a brief catchup on news regarding Vietnamese football in the Vietnamese media, so what did I find?

Da Nang want the league suspending!!
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/spo...tball-club-petitions-to-suspend-v-league.html

National coach not choosen yet!!
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/spo...coach-to-be-chosen-from-seven-candidates.html

At the rate the league is going, a couple more controversies and the league will fold...

Nothing really seems to have pushed on since the 2008 AFF Championship win.

League Clubs haven't gotten better and even though the national teams ranking has gone up, they haven't really done anything.

They might have the best strategy, win a major regional tournament and then play nobody to preserve your spot on top of the region.. We really need to be playing more friendlies. We need more countries to come to Vietnam to play.

Saigon coach sacked by text, classy.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/20806/tuan-sacked-after-losing-streak-at-sai-gon-fc.html

Still no national coach announced, never mind, have a youth coach now!!

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/20850/mai-duc-chung-to-lead-u23-squad.html

druryfire, are you on Wiki? I'm on there and have been making edits to all things Viet football on there. I'm having issues with keeping up with Managerial changes. With my Viet not so well, I can't get news about managerial changes until its translated in English on Viet news sites. Are you pretty abreast on the managerial positions in the top 2 Vietnamese league? Check out the 2012 season pages for V-League and First Division to see if I'm on track, if you have time. Thanks.

Yes fella, i'm on wiki, i've been updating the pages you say but just like yourself the managerial chanegs are a nightmare. I rely totally on English language media.

I generally only change things if I can find a reference for it so I can link it.

Couldn't tell you a thing about any leagues out of the top flight though. All I could do there is produce leagues and results.

The 2012 league pages are looking good though and I do hope we can maybe make this a standard for previous seasons played etc. It's hard for managerial changes etc but the team locations etc can be added to some of the articles. It's interesting when you look back and see the name changes and location changes of some clubs.

By the way, i'm not any percent Vietnamese at all. I'm 100% English and if an English guy like me can update the pages then I'm sure between us that if we keep them well, then more people with more sources will join.

Just one thing of note, if you make major changes, try to reference, if their not referenced, normally someone puts it back, even if it's correct!

Enjoy your editing!

Finally, some good news for Viet football! We named a temp manager for the National team that seems competent for the job and even though his first match was against China (a 0-3 friendly), the team responds with a comeback win against Hong Kong (2-1)!

Vietnamese-Czech defender Michal Nguyen from 2. Liga side Banik Most has been offered a call-up by Vietnam for the Suzuki Cup. Don't know much about the player, other than he has been breaking into their lineup this last year and that he's 22. Some translated notes from the article:

- He doesn't speak Vietnamese, but he's still interested in representing his father's homeland. His father moved to Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) 35 years ago, and his mother is Czech.
- The Vietnamese national team first scouted/approached him last year, since he doesn't speak Vietnamese he's been communicating in English and on occasion using his father to translate.
- Is in process of getting Vietnamese citizenship through his father.
- Can't see himself playing in the Vietnamese league, saying that he probably couldn't adapt to the heat and that he feels the league has a reputation for corruption/mafia influence.

This is the second Czech based player to be approached by Vietnam recently as Mac Hong Quan formerly of Sparta Praha's youth team played for the Vietnam U-23 team earlier this summer. He's a bit different situation in that he was born in Vietnam and speaks that language, but moved to the Czech Republic as a child. I think he did participate in Czech U-17 training camp a few years back, but didn't have his citizenship yet and couldn't participate in competitive matches.

Mac Hong Quan had a fair amount of buzz around him as a youth player, but, as I understand it, some poorly timed health issues and problems outside of football caused him to become jaded with the game right about the time he was supposed to transition from youth squad to main squad. He did show signs of bouncing back this year though in some appearances for Sparta B in 2. Liga. He's got quite a bit of talent if he can find the right club (his contract with Sparta expired) and recommit himself. He's a 20-year-old right midfielder.

An unexpected article appeared online recently: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/sports/25110/one-more-legendary-fc-goes-into-a-tailspin.html

Talks about Ho Chi Minh City football clubs and the hard times it has fallen on and even goe son to give us a bit of history of the club aswell as another former team The Cong.

More of these articles are needed for Vietnamese football history to be pieced together.