VietNamNet Bridge – Huynh Van Anh, former coach of the V-League's Hoang Anh Gia Lai team, is aiming to take his new side all the way in this year's Lao National Cup and hopes some Vietnamese recruits can help him in his quest.

Anh has swapped Viet Nam's premier football competition to head up newly established Lao team Hoang Anh-Attapeu and feels optimistic about his team's chances.

The squad is comprised of 23 young players, four of which are Vietnamese.

They will battle 20 other teams for Laos's premier trophy and have been drawn in a group with Champasak, Sekong and Salavan.

Only the top two sides from each group will progress to the quarter finals, so Anh will face a tough battle to achieve success.

"We are a new team with very young players. We aim to do our best in the cup before competing in the qualifiers of the National Championship – Lao League this December," he said.

"We recruited the best 19 players and signed contracts with four Vietnamese players from Hoang Anh Gia Lai including Tran Vu, Ta Thai Hoc, Kieu Thanh Liem and Tran Ngoc Bao. However, Lao athletes are too young, so it takes time to train them from the beginning," Anh added.

The qualifying rounds will be held between December and January, with the best 12 teams securing berths into the Lao League next year.

Anh, who managed Hoang Anh Gia Lai from 1999-2010, becomes the fourth Vietnamese coach to work abroad.

In recent years, Nguyen Ngoc Thien from Binh Dinh worked at Champasak team in Laos, while An Giang duo Tran Van Khoai and Luu Quoc Tan took charge of the Takeo team in Cambodia.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, which sponsors the team, has ambitious plans to build a football academy in Attapeu.

The academy would follow on from the US$4 million youth football training centre the group built in conjunction with English Premier League club Arsenal in 2007.

VietNamNet/VNS