25th SEA Games, Laos

Laos U23 team had their warm up match with HAGL club from Vietnam in preparation for the 25th SEA Games in Chao Anou football stadium, Vientiane.

In the first match which kicked off on Sunday 22nd November, Laos team trounced Vietnam 4:0. However, the match on 24th November, Vietnam hit back and won Laos with the score 3:1.

This will be the final warm up match for Laos U23 team.

In 25th SEA Games, Laos will first meet Myanmar on December 5th.

The opening match in Group B football of the 25th SEA Games in Laos will be played on 5 December considering that they are only four teams in the group as against five teams in Group A.

The first match in Group B at the National Stadium will be Singapore taking on Indonesia while hosts Laos will play Myanmar, who were the silver medallist two years ago in Thailand.


GROUPINGS

Group A: Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Cambodia

Group B: Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia


FIXTURES

2 Dec (Main Stadium): Malaysia vs Timor Leste (1500hrs)/ Thailand vs Vietnam (1745hrs)

4 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Thailand vs Cambodia 1500hrs)/ Vietnam vs Timor Leste (1745hrs)

5 Dec (Main Stadium): Singapore vs Indonesia (1500hrs)/ Laos vs Myanmar (1745hrs)

6 Dec (Main Stadium): Vietnam vs Malaysia (1500hrs)/ Timor Leste vs Cambodia (1745hrs)

7 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Myanmar vs Singapore (1500hrs)/ Indonesia vs Laos (1745hrs)

8 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Timor Leste vs Thailand (1500hrs)/ Cambodia vs Malaysia (1745hrs)

9 Dec: Opening Ceremony

10 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Myanmar vs Indonesia (1500hrs)/ Laos vs Singapore (1745hrs)

11 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Cambodia vs Vietnam (1500hrs)/ Malaysia vs Thailand (1500hrs)

14 Dec (Chao Anu Vong Stadium): Semi-finals

17 Dec: Third/ Fourth Placing (1500hrs at Chao Anu Vong Stadium)/ FINAL (1700hrs at Main Stadium)

Photo: Lamnao Singto, Lao football player

The second day for the PRE-SEA Games football match kicked off in Vientiane on Sunday, in which Laos played against Thailand, and Vietnam played against Malaysia.

The results are as follows:

Laos 3: Thailand 0
Malaysia 3: Vietnam 1

Watch the clip between Laos vs Thailand below

Former Viet Nam football team coach Alfred Riedl has agreed to coach Laos’s U-23 team ahead of the Southeast Asian Games this December.

The 60-year-old Austrian coach, who was sacked by V-League Hai Phong Cement in March after just three games, signed a seven-month contract with Football Federation of Laos in HCM City on Saturday.

The coach’s salary will be paid by the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, who own V-League team Hoang Anh Gia Lai, a source from Hoang Anh Gia Lai said yesterday.

Last year, the group agreed to finance the training of the U-23 football squad for the 25th SEA Games, which take place in December, following a visit by the Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Langsavad to the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai group will also cover the expenses of the Lao footballers while they are training at the group’s sport centre in Gia Lai Province.
The Group and the Lao Ministry of Finance have signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of apartments for athletes competing in the SEA Games. Under the agreement, Hoang Anh Gia Lai will pay US$14 million to build 1,000 rooms for the 25th SEA Games.

Under Riedl’s stewardship, Viet Nam won a silver medal at the ASEAN Football Championship, known as Tiger Cup in 1998.

Viet Nam also won silver medals at the 1999 and 2003 SEA Games and the 23rd SEA Games in the Philippines in 2005.

However, he resigned after the team performed poorly at the 24th SEA Games in Thailand.

Viet Nam’s greatest achievement under Riedl’s stewardship was to reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals in July 2007, which the country co-hosted along with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

In 2001, the Austrian coach also failed to save Khanh Hoa from relegation in the V-League after four months.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Lao football federation invited the Chonburi club FC and TTM Samut Songkhram of Thailand and Hoang An Gia Lai club from Vietnam to join the warm up match of football championship in preparation for the 25th SEA Games at the end of this year.

Nivat Kaisang, Manager of Lao National Football Team, revealed that the football championship of four teams from three countries will be kicked off from 17-20 September 2009, in which Laos will use the national team that will participate in SEA Games, and famous football clubs from Thailand and Vietnam will be invited to join. The game will be held at the newly built stadium in Champasak province, southern part of Laos.

The objective of the competition is to warm up Lao national team in preparation for the 25th SEA Games, and to build up good relationship between the clubs in Thailand and Vietnam. In the near future, Laos also plan to organize similar football championshiop by inviting thai national team for SEA Games to join the match on October this year.