Identity of referee who will officiate Vietnam's match against Indonesia; 17-year-old player who helped Brazil defeat England at Wembley
(Baonghean.vn) - The referee who controlled the match between two Southeast Asian representatives at My Dinh Stadium brought luck to the Vietnamese team; U23 Vietnam remained undefeated in the training camp; the results of some international friendly matches... are notable sports news in the past 24 hours.
Who is the referee who will be officiating the match between Vietnam and Indonesia at My Dinh Stadium?
According to the schedule, the Vietnamese team will host Indonesia at My Dinh Stadium at 7:00 p.m. on March 26. This is a match within the framework of Group F of the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has decided to assign referee Faghani Alireza, an Australian, to officiate the match between the two Southeast Asian representatives.
His assistants include assistant 1 Larkrindis George, assistant 2 Gallagher Ryan Mark (both Australian nationals), while table referee Heidari Bijian is from Iran.
Referee Faghani Alireza caused a huge controversy at the recent 2023 Asian Cup when he showed a second yellow card to Aymen Hussein (Iraq) for imitating his Jordanian opponent's celebration. This decision created a turning point that led to Iraq's 2-3 defeat.
Iraqi fans then strongly protested against the Australian referee, claiming that he had deliberately "eliminated" his team.
Referee Faghani once made an unfavorable decision for the Vietnamese team in the match against Jordan in the 1/8 round of the 2019 Asian Cup. He decided to recognize Jordan's goal from an indirect free kick.
The indirect free kick rule states that the ball must have at least two touches before entering the net for a goal to be valid. In this situation, the ball did not seem to have at least two touches on the Jordanian player before hitting the Vietnamese net, but the referee still recognized it.
Statistics show that the Vietnamese team still has "good luck" every time referee Faghani is in charge. In the match against Jordan, our team won the penalty shootout to enter the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup.
The Australian referee also officiated the second leg of the 2018 AFF Cup final between Vietnam and Malaysia at My Dinh Stadium. In this match, Coach Park Hang-seo’s team won 1-0 and was crowned champion of the tournament.
Referee Faghani has only refereed one match for Indonesia when they lost 0-2 to Malaysia in the second round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia.
Indonesia won 1-0 against Vietnam on home ground on March 21. This result helped them climb to second place in Group F with 4 points, pushing Vietnam down to third place with 3 points.
Each group in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia will have only 2 teams advancing, so victory against Indonesia at My Dinh is a must for Philippe Troussier and his team.
U23 Vietnam undefeated in training series
In order to create the opportunity for the maximum number of players to play on the field as the purpose of the tour in Tajikistan, the coaching staff of the U23 Vietnam team arranged the starting lineup with 10 changes compared to the first friendly match on March 20. The only player who was retained in the starting lineup of U23 Vietnam in the 1-0 victory over U23 Tajikistan was Bui Vi Hao.
Despite the disadvantage of having to continue playing on artificial turf, the U23 Vietnam players showed better ability to keep up with the rhythm than the other team. The opportunities that U23 Vietnam created were also sharper, but the strikers failed to take advantage of them.
U23 Vietnam (white shirt) had many opportunities but failed to take advantage.
In the second half, the coaching staff of the U23 Vietnam team continued to adjust the personnel to increase the number of minutes on the field for all players. Just like in the first half, both teams tried very hard to unlock the opponent's goal. However, the finishing moves still did not have the necessary accuracy to convert the opportunities into goals. The match ended in a 0-0 draw.
Thus, the U23 Vietnam team has completed the training trip in Tajikistan with the results of 1 win and 1 draw in two friendly matches with the host U23 Tajikistan. These are 2 matches that are meant to "warm up" the U23 Vietnam team towards the 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals which will take place from April 15 to May 3 in Qatar, where the U23 Vietnam team will face challenges from Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Malaysia in Group D.
According to the schedule, the Vietnam U23 team will take a flight back home on the night of March 24. It is expected that the team will regroup in early April, with the strongest force planned for the competition at the continental U23 arena.
17-year-old star helps Brazil defeat England at Wembley
In the much-anticipated friendly match at Wembley, England, despite having home advantage, lost 0-1 to Brazil. The only goal scorer for the South American representative was 17-year-old young talent Endrick.
True to the nature of a friendly match, the two teams entered the game comfortably after the opening whistle. In the 3rd minute, Foden's free kick from the left wing sent the ball wide of the Brazilian goal. Just 5 minutes later, Selecao responded with a powerful long-range shot from Rodrygo. In the 12th minute, Vinicius broke the offside trap and rushed past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, but his final shot was too weak, forcing the English player to retreat to cover and clear the danger in time.
In the second half, the match continued to be open. However, the turning point only came in the 80th minute when the young star coming off the bench, Enrick, silenced the whole Wembley. Receiving a pass from his teammate, Vinicius sprinted down to face goalkeeper Pickford. Vinicius's pass was pushed out but the ball fell right to Endrick and the 17-year-old player easily tapped the ball into the empty net to open the score for Brazil.
Endrick could have scored twice in the final minute of injury time, had his strike in the box been sharper from a Brazilian counter-attack. However, the 1-0 result was enough for Brazil to once again inflict pain on England. In the next friendly, England will face Belgium while Brazil will face Spain.
Germany defeated France with a super goal in the 7th second
The friendly match between France and Germany had a rather surprising result when the German team won 2-0 right on the opponent's field. Notably, they opened the score in the 7th second thanks to a great goal by Florian Wirtz.
Despite playing away from home, the German team entered the match with great confidence. Immediately after kick-off, Kroos made an accurate pass to Wirtz, who then fired a classy long-range shot into the French net in the 7th second.
Having conceded an early goal, France had no choice but to push up their formation to attack. However, their efforts were not enough. Star Kylian Mbappe also had a few chances for himself but could not turn them into goals.
Meanwhile, Germany was also ready to create dangerous attacks towards the home team's goal, but no more goals were scored in the first half.
In the second half, the situation was similar to the first half when Germany scored a goal in the first minutes. In the 49th minute, Wirtz passed the ball accurately to Musiala. This player dribbled past the opposing goalkeeper before "setting the table" for Havertz to tap the ball into the empty net to double the gap for the German team.
With 2 goals, Germany played better and better. They created dozens of other good chances. But the excellence of goalkeeper Samba prevented Die Mannschaft from scoring more goals.
As for the home team France, they could not control the ball so they did not have many opportunities to score any goals.
The match ended with a 2-0 victory for Germany. This was the first victory for coach Julian Nagelsmann after 3 unbeaten matches (1 draw and 2 losses). A perfect warm-up for the EURO finals when Germany was the host team.
Inter Miami suffered a 0-4 defeat in the absence of Lionel Messi
A surprise happened in the match between New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami when the home team won 4-0. This result made Inter Miami officially lose the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings at MLS 2024.
Messi is still absent due to injury, so all hope for Inter Miami can only depend on the trio of Suarez, Busquets and Alba in the away match against New York Red Bulls. The home team caused a surprise when they opened the score in the 3rd minute. The scorer was Lewis Morgan, a player who used to play for Inter Miami.
Conceding a goal, Inter Miami launched a storm of attacks. However, both Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez had a bad day, constantly missing good chances. The first half ended with a 1-0 advantage in favor of the home team.
In the second half, Inter Miami not only failed to score an equalizer but also conceded 3 more goals. In the 51st minute, Morgan doubled the gap for the home team after successfully taking advantage of a failed pass from defender Aviles.
In the 66th minute, it was Morgan who made a save close to the touchline to keep the ball in play. From this situation, Carmona scored to increase the score to 3-0 for the home team.
Morgan completed his hat-trick three minutes later on a quick counter-attack. Remarkably, all four of New York Red Bulls' goals came from assists from Dante Vanzeir, who played alongside Morgan up front.
The final result of this match was 4-0 in favor of the home team. The crushing defeat caused Inter Miami to lose the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings at MLS 2024. They have 10 points after 6 matches, equal in points with Columbus Crew but inferior in goal difference. New York Red Bulls are right behind with equal points but also inferior in goal difference. Notably, Columbus Crew has only played 4 matches while the Red Bulls have only played 5.
