HÀ NỘI — Sanatech Sanest Khánh Hòa beat Thái Sơn Nam at the National HDBank Futsal Championship on Thursday in Lãnh Bình Thăng Gymnasium in HCM City.

“The appearance of spectators at the stadium showed truly the prediction of experts and fans, that this is a top match of Vietnamese futsal. In recent years, Sanatech has played so much better and our matches are getting more emotional,” said Trần Duy Hiếu, head of the Khánh Hòa team.  

For head coach Nguyễn Bảo Quân of Thái Sơn Nam, though he has thoroughly researched the style of Sanatech, the team appeared not to keep an eye on their defence. “Sanatech played tightly and used a safe strategy. Most of the long passes and the even-the-score situations originated from that style. We have studied it but we did not deal with it really well.”

In their latest three encounters at the National Championship tournament, Sanatech had one win and two draws with Thái Sơn Nam and this game fit that precedent. 

After the first half with no goal, the advantage went to Thái Sơn Nam as Tôn Thất Phi scored for the Hồ Chí Minh City team 1-0.

However, Thái Sơn Nam lost strength in their defense and from a long pass of Văn Hạnh, Quốc Bảo made a header to Thanh Hoàng, who wasted no time to even the score 1-1 to Sanatech.

Continuing to strengthen their attack, Khánh Hòa affirmed their power as Phước Hạnh stirred up the defense of Thái Sơn Nam, before passing to Đinh Hùng and overcoming goalkeeper Hồ Văn Ý to raise the score to 2-1.

“This victory opens a door to success for us. We still have six more matches to go, but it is the motivation to our players on the path to the top,” added Hiếu.

With this triumph, Sanatech have risen to the second rank, with 26 points like Thái Sơn Nam but more wins.

Thái Sơn Nam fell to third in the race to this year’s championship.  

They will face Cao Bằng on September 15 and Khánh Hòa will meet Thái Sơn Bắc on September 16. — VNS