Just over a month after winning the Thang Long-Hanoi Football Cup, the North Korean national team will return to Vietnamese soil to take part in the four-team VFF Sonha Cup at My Dinh National Stadium at the beginning of November.
The North Koreans, who finished top of the four-team group ahead of the Vietnamese national team and the U23 sides of Australia and Kuwait to win the September tournament, will again face the Vietnamese national team along with the Singaporean NT and Hong Myung-bo’s South Korean U23 squad. North Korea will face Singapore in their first match on November 2nd before tackling their cross-border rivals on November 4th. The final round of fixtures will see the North Koreans facing Vietnam on November 6th.
This will be North Korea’s second participation in the Vietnam Football Federation Cup tournament, originally launched as the Agribank Cup in 2004, following their participation in the 2008 edition where they fell 1-0 to Thailand in their opening game before drawing 0-0 with the hosts in their second and final match. 2010 will be South Korea’s first participation in the invitational tournament, with previous editions having seen the likes of FC Porto, New Zealand A, Finland U23 and Brazilian club side Santa Cruz take part.
The tournament winners will pick up $20,000 prize money courtesy of sponsors Sonha Group, whilst the runners-up will receive $10,000 and the third-placed team $5,000. The 2009 edition was won by Vietnam U23 who topped a four-team group featuring the U23 sides from China, Thailand and Singapore.
The full match schedule for the tournament is as follows:
November 2nd:
Singapore v North Korea
Vietnam v South Korea U23
November 4th:
North Korea v South Korea U23
Vietnam v Singapore
November 6th:
Singapore v South Korea U23
Vietnam v North Korea
