Football

HA NOI — A place in the top five of the V.League 1 is the goal for Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA) if they beat Nam Dinh today.

The game will be held at the Thien Truong Stadium in the northern province of Nam Dinh.

SLNA have had five wins in a row and currently sit in sixth position with 23 points. They beat Hai Phong 3-2 in their last match at the Lach Tray Stadium.

Meanwhile, Nam Dinh’s form is not as good. They are at 13th place out of 14 teams with just 16 points.

However, Nam Dinh did have an impressive win recently beating former champions SHB Da Nang 4 – 2 to lift them from the foot of the table, their best result since promotion.

The last time Nam Dinh competed in Viet nam’s top-tier football competition was seven years ago under the name of Megastar Nam Dinh. At that time, Nam Dinh and SLNA remained the only two teams to be present in all V-League seasons since 2000.

In their last seven match-ups, SLNA had four wins, while Nam Dinh won three.

“The gap between Nam Dinh and teams ranking at ninth and 10^th place is not much. We have to try our best in every game to avoid relegation. Especially in our home games,” said coach Nguyen Van Sy of Nam Dinh.

The hosts Nam Dinh have signed acontract with Brazilian striker Diogo Junior Pereira, who played for Vietnamese club Binh Duong and SHB Da Nang, in the hope of getting the goals needed to stay in the division.

However, the biggest hope of Nam Dinh is midfielder Le Sy Minh who won the best player award of June of the V.League by goal.com. Minh scored three goals and had four assists last month.

While, SLNA have also signed contract with Jamaican forward Jeremie Dwayne Lynch, who played for Portmore United and scored 10 goals in 30 appearances.

Elsewhere, Da Nang meet Hai Phong, Sai Gon face Thanh Hoa, defending champions Quang Nam take on Binh Duong and Hoang Anh Gia Lai fight Khanh Hoa. — VNS