Vietnam - Indonesia match at Asian Cup to be played until midnight; MU's top 4 dream is further away

Vietnam - Indonesia matchat the Asian Cuprock till midnight

The 2023 Asian Cup Organizing Committee announced the official time and venue for the group stage matches taking place in Qatar.

In Group D, the Vietnamese team will meet Japan on January 14, 2024 at Al Thumama Stadium, meet Indonesia on January 18, 2024 at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium before moving to Jassim bin Hamad Stadium to face Iraq in the final match on January 24, 2024.

Notably, Coach Troussier and his team will play two matches against Iraq and Japan at 2:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. Hanoi time). The match against Indonesia will take place at 5:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. Hanoi time). The match will end for audiences in Vietnam at around 11:30 p.m. Among the three stadiums in the group stage of the Vietnamese team, Al Thumama is the venue that has hosted several matches of the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar has the honor of hosting.

According to the plan, today (December 31), the Vietnamese team will gather in Hanoi and practice until January 5, 2024, then leave for Doha (Qatar). In the host country of the 2023 Asian Cup finals, Coach Troussier and his team will play a friendly match with Kyrgyzstan, scheduled for January 9, 2024, before finalizing the list of 26 official players for the tournament. The 2023 Asian Cup has 24 participating teams, divided into 6 groups, each group will play a round-robin to calculate points, selecting the top 2 teams in each group and 4 third-placed teams with good results to enter the round of 16. The goal of the Vietnamese team is to strive to reach the quarter-finals like the 2019 season.

Vietnam futsal hero at World Cup 2021 retires

Vietnam futsal player Nguyen Dac Huy retired at the age of 32. He brought overwhelming emotions to fans in the 2-3 loss to Russia in the round of 16 of the 2021 World Cup.

The Vietnamese futsal team, which participated in the World Cup for the second time, scored the first goal in history in a knockout round thanks to player Nguyen Dac Huy. Before the match, he suffered a leg injury during training but still endured the pain, and together with his teammates and coach Pham Minh Giang, faced the Russian team in the round of 16.

The player from Dak Lak was the one who brought home the goal to shorten the score to 1-2 in the first half and made the remaining half dramatic and emotional for the fans even though Vietnam lost narrowly 2-3.

Yesterday (December 30), player Nguyen Dac Huy officially said goodbye to his professional futsal career after more than 10 years of playing.

"I was able to fulfill my dreams. I played on the field, enjoyed the fun and traveled to all the fields in the world, cried when I lost or won. I met and interacted with many friends, learned and trained myself from good teachers" - Nguyen Dac Huy shared and sent his thanks to his teachers and teammates on his personal page.

During his professional career, Huy Ken (nickname) played for 3 futsal teams: Tan Hiep Hung (2013-2016), Thai Son Nam (2016-2019) and Sahako (2019-2023) with 5 national championships and 3 national cups.

In particular, he and Sahako Club made history when they brought the "Three-legged Crows" to the championship for the first time in 2022 and ended 6 consecutive seasons of domination by Thai Son Nam (2016-2021).

Shocking loss to Nottingham, MU moves further away from top 4 dream

The match between Nottingham and MU in round 20 of the 2023-2024 Premier League witnessed a 1-2 defeat for the away team. This defeat made MU further and further away from the dream of entering the top 4 in the Premier League this season.

The two teams started the match cautiously and there were not many notable situations in the first half. The most memorable moment was the near-own goal of Raphael Varane of MU in the 12th minute.

The first few minutes of the second half did not see much change. It was only when both teams made changes in personnel that the match started to heat up.

In the 64th minute, the deadlock was broken. Gonzalo Montiel broke the offside trap before crossing for Nicolas Dominguez to finish diagonally past Andre Onana to open the scoring for the home team.

Conceding a goal, MU frantically attacked and quickly got an equalizer. In the 78th minute, Garnacho intercepted one of goalkeeper Matt Turner's sloppy passes before setting up Rashford to score the equalizer 1-1.

But just four minutes later, the home team took the lead again. From a counter-attack, Anthony Elanga crossed for Morgan Gibbs-White to score the ball into the visitors' net.

In the remaining minutes, Man United attacked tirelessly, but their lack of precision in finishing and bad luck left them helpless.

The final result of this match was 2-1 in favor of Nottingham. The home team rose to 15th place in the rankings with 20 points after 20 rounds. Meanwhile, MU is in 7th place but has played 1 more match than the 2 teams below, Brighton and Newcastle.

Barca uses "unique trick" to invite Greenwood

Striker Greenwood is attracting attention in Spanish football after moving to Getafe on loan from Man United.

The presence of the 22-year-old star greatly contributed to helping the "average" team Getafe climb to 8th place in La Liga.

Getafe wanted to buy the striker who had scored 5 goals and 4 assists for them in all competitions, but Barca jumped in to block the deal.

Sun Sport said that the Nou Camp team planned to invite Greenwood with a transfer fee of up to 40 million pounds and the iconic number 10 shirt left by Messi.

The 2022 World Cup winner, owner of 8 Golden Balls, left Barca in August 2021 and the number 10 shirt was then given to Ansu Fati.

Since Fati moved to Brighton in the Premier League on loan in September, the No. 10 shirt at the Nou Camp has not had an owner. Therefore, Barca wants to use the iconic No. 10 shirt to "lure" Greenwood.

The Catalan giants are also ready to give the English striker the iconic number 10 shirt left by Lionel Messi at the Nou Camp.

The England striker is reviving his career after agreeing to leave Man Utd. In February, Greenwood was cleared by British authorities of attempted rape, coercive behaviour and assault.

The Red Devils then signalled their willingness to facilitate a return to Old Trafford for their young star. But a backlash from fans forced Man Utd to cancel the move in early August and he joined Getafe after 18 months without playing.

“Greenwood still hopes that one day he can return to Old Trafford but that is unlikely,” commented the Sun Sport.

International tennis match in Australia suspended due to special reasons

Dominic Thiem and James McCabe's match in the preliminary round of the Brisbane International (in Brisbane, Australia) was stopped for a very strange reason. People discovered a venomous snake suddenly appeared on the court.

The organizers immediately stopped the match so a professional snake catcher could deal with the "uninvited guest".

It is reported to be one of the most dangerous snakes in Australia and is considered the second most venomous land snake in the world, after the Inland Taipan.

Although the match was interrupted with a bit of panic, it was a turning point for Thiem. At that time, he was leading 3-5 and in danger of losing.

Even in game 9, he faced 3 match-points but successfully saved them before breaking McCabe's game.

Then, the score of 6-6 forced the second set to enter a tie-break, which the former US Open champion won 7-4 to equalize the final score.

On the contrary, McCabe's mentality was affected in set 3, he lost 4-6 with a break in the 10th game he served.

Thiem will need one more win in qualifying to advance to the main draw of the Brisbane International. His next opponent is Italian Giulio Zeppieri.