Striker Le Cong Vinh

HCM CITY (VNS) — The Vietnamese national football team's new head coach, Toshiya Miura from Japan, had a perfect debut as his team thrashed Myanmar 6-0 in a friendly at Go Dau Stadium in Binh Duong last night.

A hat trick from star striker Le Cong Vinh, a double from striker and new face Nguyen Hai Anh and one from substitute midfielder Nguyen Van Quyet completed the rout, which most of the 10,000 fans did not anticipate.

Myanmar have troubled Viet Nam at every meeting between the teams, but last night under new coach Radojko Abramovic, the young Burmese side completely lacked their usual fighting spirit.

Both coaches did as they promised in the pre-match news conference, fielding a lot of new faces in the match.

But Toshiya, who seemed not to want to have a slip-up in his debut game in front of home fans, chose to play the most experienced players in all three parts despite featuring some new faces in the starting line-up.

With Le Phuoc Tu and Au Van Hoan in the defence, Le Tan Tai and Pham Thanh Luong in the midfield and star striker Le Cong Vinh in the front line, it was no wonder that Viet Nam was a strong team.

Defender Dinh Tien Thanh, strikers Nguyen Hai Anh and Vu Minh Tuan were new faces in the first half with two more new faces Hoang Minh Tam and Dinh Thanh Trung coming on the pitch in the second half.

So it did not take much time for the hosts to swing the game to their favour and quickly create chances. Tuan and Anh missed them all, but the latter soon made amends with a powerful volley from inside the penalty area to open the scoring.

On the 15th minute, Anh doubled the score with his second after he headed in Vinh's cross. And only four minutes later, Vinh got his name on the score sheet after he scraped a scuffed shot into the net to make it 3-0.

Myanmar tried to respond but barely drew any saves from Vietnamese goalkeeper Tran Nguyen Manh. Their main striker Kyaw Ko Ko failed to cause problems for Vietnamese defence.

The home team continued their domination and in the 33rd minute, Vinh collected the ball at the edge of the box and fired a low shot beyond the Burmese goalkeeper to extend the lead to 4-0, which remained unchanged until the break.

Myanmar made four changes after the restart but this did not improve their attacking ability. Viet Nam soon took control of the match and had their fifth goal six minutes into the second half as Vinh completed his hat trick with an easy shot inside the penalty area.

Coach Toshyia made three more changes, bringing on another new faces defender Bui Van Long and striker Dinh Thanh Trung as well as Quyet, who completed an accurate header from substitute midfielder Nguyen Vu Phong's corner on the right wing.

Myanmar made their fifth and final substitution with eight minutes remaining but could not even find a consolation goal.

The easy victory without any injuries must also please clubs and coaches, as the V-League will resume this weekend. — VNS