The Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper's International Football Championship Cup stayed in Vietnam for the second time after Vietnam's U19 team defeated the Thai U21 2-1 on Oct. 31 in HCM City.

Despite being considered weak compared to their rivals, the host proved that they could not be defeated by starting the match with effective attacks from the very first seconds.

Nguyen Hai Huy's opening goal proved their power in the first half. His 16.50m straight shot made more than 10,000 spectators, including national head coach Henrique Calisto, burst into happy and uninterrupted applause.

But Thailand were still a tough opponent throughout the tournament. Their forward trio of Sokjoho, Hongthong and Anan forced the Vietnamese players to work very hard to protect their net.

Thai tactics included rotating their positions in an aim to stretch the Vietnamese defence to level the score. However, this effort proved fruitless as they consistently had to back off to help their teammates thwart threatening counter-attacks from the Vietnamese side.

Goalie Buu Ngoc worked hard to keep the Thais to one goal after miscommunication between his teammates allowed a close-range shot by Meesawad to be converted into the second goal of the match.

The sudden loss confused the Vietnamese players to such an extent that Thai halfback Jungreed nearly scored a second goal a few minutes later. But Ngoc continued with his heroics to block many other Thai shots throughout the match. He was later voted as the best player of the match.

In the 78th minute, Vietnam scored their second goal in a rapid counter-attack. Van Quyet, who played in the shadows for much of the match, passed the ball across the box to a waiting Minh Tuan. His shot was punched out but the ball ricocheted to Van Thanh who scored with ease.

In addition to the cup, the team was awarded 300 million VND (15,000 USD).

In the earlier match, the U21 Thanh Nien Newspaper team beat U21 Malaysia 1-0 to secure third place.

Substitute striker Hoang Nhat Nam scored the only goal of the match from a free kick in the 82nd minute. The score would have been higher if Huu Phat had not missed a penalty a short time earlier.

This was the fourth year the tournament was organised with international teams. Vietnam 's first victory was in 2007 when they defeated Thailand 1-0 in the final./.