Police order reluctant Vietnam striker to play ball
HANOI - Vietnam police have ordered the country's top football striker to
join the national squad despite his announced departure from international
play, sports officials said yesterday.
Le Huynh Duc, the nimble-footed striker for the club Ho Chi Minh City
Police, must play for the national team in upcoming World Cup qualifiers, the
Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) said.
Huynh Duc, 28 and clearly Vietnam's best player, resigned from the team on
New Year's Day, citing exhaustion and injury. The announcement triggered
sudden panic among football management.
"Huynh Duc has been ordered by his superiors in the police to play for the
national team,'' a worried VFF general secretary Pham Ngoc Vien said.
Ngoc Vien said medical checkups for Huynh Duc and other stars may be
demanded in the immediate future to assess their claims of fatigue or injury.
The team will gather today at the national sports centre in Hanoi under their
new coach, Brazil-born Dutchman Edson "Dido'' Silva, who has expressed
his own reservations about the commitment of players.
The spat came amid Vietnam's struggles to cope with three star players
abandoning the squad ahead of Group 10 World Cup qualifiers in Saudi
Arabia beginning on Feb 8, when Vietnam play Bangladesh.
A fourth, top midfielder Hong Son, has also threatened to quit.
Bgoc Vien acknowledged it was all but certain that host Saudi Arabia,
ranked as Asia's top squad, will win Group 10 next month.
"But we can strive for second place. That's why we need the strongest team
possible.''
A VFF official who asked not to be identified said players may not wish to
suffer the pyschological strains of losing yet another campaign.
Football-mad Vietnam finished a disappointing fourth in last year's Tiger
Cup.
Vietnam are ranked 99th in the world by FIFA, the governing body of
international football.
The Star (Malaysia) - January 5, 2001.
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