VietNamNet Bridge – National coach Falko Goetz called up 27 players to join the U23 football team's second training camp in preparation for the 26th Southeast Asian Games in November.

Warm up: Vietnamese players will have two weeks training ahead of the VFF Cup, which is a warm-up tournament for November's SEA Games in Indonesia. (Photo: VNS)

Midfielder Lam Anh Quang is to make his debut after a great performance at the National Under-21 Football Championship earlier this month.

Quang was voted best player at the annual tournament, which took place in southern Binh Duong Province.

Goetz has also placed much hope in U19 goalie Lam An Do and midfielder Le Hoang Thien who proved his worth during the V-League season.

Training kicked off at the Ham Rong Sport Centre in central highland Pleiku City yesterday and will commence until October 14 when 14 players travel to Ha Noi to take part in the Viet Nam Football Federation Cup.

The annual tournament, considered a last warm-up for the 26th Southeast Asian Games, is scheduled for October 19-23 at the My Dinh National Stadium, one month ahead of the SEA Games in Indonesia.

Earlier, Goetz selected 21 national team players to a friendly match against Japan in Kobe on October 7.

The players will train in Ha Noi and fly to Japan on Wednesday where they will spend two days acclimatising.

It will be the first time in history that Viet Nam play Japan, who will use the game to prepare for their World Cup 2014 qualifier.

Japan is currently under the direction of renowned Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni, formerly of AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan.

The Italian plans to call on many well-known Japanese players, presently based in Europe, such as Takashi Usami (Bayern Munich), Takashi Inui (Bochum), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dormund), Okazaki (Stuttgart) and Akihiro Ienaga (Mallorca).

Japan managed to defeat South Korea 3-0 on August 10 and Argentina 1-0 last October during previous friendly matches.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News