Vietnam coach Hoang Van Phuc said after the match it was apparent Brunei was trying to catch his players offside.
“But we saw that tactic and were able to score three times from breaks and missed several other chances from the same position,” he said.
After a tentative first few minutes in which neither team seemed prepared to take the game to the other, Vietnam broke through with several shots that tested Brunei keeper Abdul Hafiz abdul Rahim from both flanks.
A fine save on Vietnam’s Tran Manh Dung on 12 minutes appeared to give the Bruneians some life, but the spark was quickly extinguished as Vu Minh Tuan finished after Dung collected a long ball from Vietnam goalie Tran NyugenManh and passed it onto Tuan for the goal.
Three minutes later Ha Minh Tuan put Vietnam up 2-0 and Le Van Thang made it 3-0 two minutes before the half.
Except for a flurry of long tries that never really threatened Vietnam keeper Manh, Brunei was held on the defensive throughout the first half.
In the second, Brunei pushed hard for the first seven or eight minutes, but a second goal by Thang on 53 minutes quickly deflated the Bruneians.
In the 59th minute, Brunei managed a shot on Manh, but he easily handled the long-range effort from Adi Said.
Even after being stung four times, Brunei’s back four continued to try to hold barely short of the centerline to support some sort of Brunei attack, but the obvious fitness and speed edges of Vietnam’s attackers left Hafiz abdul Rahim in the Brunei goal facing onslaught after onslaught of red-shirted Vietnamese.
Realizing Brunei simply had no attack worth worrying about, Vietnam flooded the box with up to six attackers on occasion.
On 65 minutes, Dung picked up his second goal of the evening, followed three minutes later by a blast from Mac Hong Quan that left Hafiz abdul Rahim with no chance.
Quan had come on only a minute or two earlier as Dung’s substitute.
Tran Phi Son wrapped up the Vietnamese scoring with a curling beauty from 20 meters on 82 minutes.
Brunei coach Kwon Oh Soon admitted after the match his players were outplayed, outclassed and out-trained.
“We really didn’t have the level of Vietnam,” he said.
Vietnam coach Phuc said he was satisfied with the day’s effort, but he warned the next matches will much tougher.
“The result doesn’t really tell us much because our opponent in the next game will be much better,” Phuc concluded.
In the late game Laos came back in the second half to fire home an equalizer and draw with Singapore 1-1.
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