Tien Minh competes in Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold

Vietnam’s world No5 badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has flown to Taipei in his quest for the 2013 Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold title for the third time.

After his unsuccessful performance at the recent Indian Badminton League, Minh only had several days off for the Taiwanese tournament, and his tasks is to defend his championship title.

 If so, he will go down in history of the tournament as the first player to secure the title for the third time.

None of the players has won Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold three times since the tournament was started in 1991.

Tien Minh, Denmark’s Peter Gade and Indonesia’s Simon Santoso became the champions twice while China’s Lin Dan and Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei took the trophy once.

It will be a great advantage for Tien Minh as none of the top 20 players has registered to compete in the tournament.

Minh is scheduled to play host underdog rival Chih Hsung Yang who is ranked 147th in the world in the opening game.

Vietnam places 4th in U16 SEA Football Champs

Vietnam’s national U16 team has lost its September 2 match against its Australian opponents, finishing fourth in the U16 Southeast Asia (SEA) Football Championships hosted by Myanmar.

The 90 minutes of regular time ended in a scoreless draw, but Vietnam was narrowly defeated 6-7 in the deciding penalty shootout.

Malaysia’s U16 team was crowned champions after beating Indonesia 3-2 on penalties.

Vietnam’s players returned to Ho Chi Minh City on September 3.

Coach Dinh Van Dung will now gather the squad for preparations in Hanoi ahead of the U16 Asian Football Championships qualifying round in Malaysia on September 25–29.

Guillume names U19 shortlist SEA Championships

A shortlist of 20 players was announced on Monday by Coach Grachen Guillume for the Southeast Asian Under-19 Football Championship.

The final team will see ten players cut from the provisional squad, with 20 players to advance to the Football Championship. The shortlist includes 12 players who have trained under Guillume at the Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal JMG Football Academy for the last five years.

The Frenchman confirmed he has chosen players who are most suitable for the tournament.

The squad will fly to Indonesia on September 7 to compete in the championships that will include 11 teams from around the region.

Viet Nam will compete in Group B, dubbed the "Group of Death" by commentators as one of the fiercest sections of the draw.

Five of six teams in the group will compete for top two places.

VN gets fourth place at regional tourney

Viet Nam finished fourth after losing to Australia in a penalty shootout in the playoffs at the Southeast Asian Under-16 football championship that finished in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Monday.

Viet Nam went down 6-7 to Australia, who recently joined the Southeast Asian Football Federation on August 26.

Malaysia took out the tournament for the first time beating Indonesia 3-2 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 score forced the decider.