Tiger Cup gets under way
Vietnam, Singapore get opening-match wins
Posted: Wednesday August 26, 1998 02:38 PM
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Le Huynh Duc scored a pair of goals in the
final five minutes to complete Vietnam's 4-1 victory over Laos
Wednesday night and cap the the country's grandest display
pageantry for the opening of the Tiger Cup.
Singapore beat Malaysia 2-0 earlier in the day to open the
eight-nation event, a regional competition in which Thailand is the
highest-ranked team at No. 45 in the world. But it is the biggest
international sports event to come to Vietnam, and excitement
bubbled over everywhere.
Top officials, including the prime minister and the Communist
Party chief, were on hand in Hanoi's 20,000-seat stadium, which
recently completed a $400,000 upgrade.
The opening ceremony, delayed until the break between games for
prime-time TV coverage in Southeast Asia, blended youth, women
dancing in traditional costumes, miniature hot-air balloons flaming
into the night sky and a laser light show.
With the World Cup theme song blaring, the standing-room-only
crowd left happy after seeing the its local heroes rout neighboring
Laos.
Nguyen Hong Son and Nguyen Van Sy each scored in the first half,
but Keolakhone Channiphone pulled Laos with 2-1 in the 60th minute.
The two late goals then clinched the victory to the delight of the
more than capacty crowd.
In the Group B opener, Mohammed Rafi Bin Mohammed Ali and Ahmad
Latiff Bin Kamaruddin each scored in the first half, and
Singapore's defense stymied Malaysia's lackluster attack.
Group A competition starts Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City when
Indonesia plays the Philippines, followed by Thailand against
Myanmar. The finals are September 5 with first-place prize money of
$80,000.
Soccer is a national obsession in Vietnam, so even though the
gates didn't open until 2 p.m., people with general-admission
tickets began packing an adjacent street in early morning so they
could grab prime spots.
Two hours before the kickoff of the first match, entire sections
already had filled. Thousands of other fans milled around outside
the stadium, many painting their faces with the gold-star-on-red
Vietnamese flag.
Capitalism, at its best ad worst, was in evidence everywhere in
the heart of the communist country.
Virtually every nearby home was turned into a makeshift outdoor
cafe. One vendor said she had sold nearly 100 small Vietnamese
flags in the first hour. Parking was going for triple the rate for
a regular match.
Despite a heavy police presence, ticket scalpers, or touts,
operated openly, seeking 150,000 dong ($10.70) - a huge amount
in a country with an average annual per-capita income of about $30 - for a 65,000 dong ($4.64 ticket).
Only 3,000 tickets are being made available for each match to
the general public; the rest have been allocated to government
dpartments and agencies.
Metal detectors were in use at each entrance to help enforce a
ban on cans and bottles. Drinks were poured into plastic bags with
straws.
During the six-week World Cup -- a tournament for which Vietnam
has never qualified -- the country nearly shut down as people stayed
up to 4 a.m. to watch matches live. Streets that normally would be
bustling on a Saturday night were deserted.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
