Vietnam suffer 1-2 defeat to China at Asian Cup qualifiers
By Vu Duc - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Vietnam ended their qualifying round of the Asian Cup 2011 with a 1-2 loss to China in the final game at Hanoi’s My Dinh National Stadium on Sunday.
The Vietnamese side began the game without key players in their lineup including top goalkeeper Duong Hong 
Son, ousted from the squad after an incident which saw him losing his passport before the second leg against Lebanon on January 6. Chief coach Henrique Calisto and the Vietnam Football Federation made the decision to weed out the top goalkeeper last week after reading Son’s own report of the incident.
The national squad also played without midfielders Sy Manh, Le Tan Tai, defender Quang Thanh and striker Quang Hai while striker Le Cong Vinh made his debut in the game after coming back from Portugal’s Leixoes in the Liga Sagres.
Though they have qualified for the finals of the Asian Cup, China began the game with their best players to find the victory in the away game. China also thrashed Vietnam 6-1 in their first leg game in China’s Huangzhou.
Vietnam, which exited from the Asian Cup, were more confident and relied on counter attacks from the start of the game while the visitors, with height advantage, pressured on their opponents with long passes from the two wings.
The two sides started the game quickly. The two sides had better scoring opportunities in the first half but their strikers missed some scoring chances until Yang Xu opened the score for the Chinese side in the 34th minute after receiving the ball from his teammate in the penalty area.
The Vietnamese defenders suffered many mistakes in the last minutes of the first half and Zhang Linpeng doubled for his team in the 43rd minute.
Chinese players continuously dominated the ball in the first minutes of the second half while the Vietnamese side faced many difficulties when striker Viet Thang was sent off with a red card in the 54th minute. However, Vietnam put more pressure on the Chinese defense line to look for an equalizer.
Chinese defender handed a scoring chance to their opponents when he stroke down Pham Thanh Luong in the penalty box. Striker Le Cong Vinh made no mistake in his second penalty kick attempt to narrow the scoring gap. The top Vietnamese striker failed to turn his first kick into a goal as the ball was saved by Chinese goalie.
Despite good ball possession in the last minutes, Trong Hoang, Vu Nhu Thanh, Le Cong Vinh came close to equalizing in the last minute but they could not find the net, leaving the score unchanged at 2-1 until the final whistle.
China finished their qualifying round as Group D leaders with 13 points from six games. Second-placed Syria, who has already qualified for the finals, have 11 points from five games. Third-placed Vietnam have five points from six games and bottom-placed Lebanon have only one point from five games.