Van Quyen made Nigerian goalkeeper turn into a clown

The “golden boy” came back with his familiar image at his top form by 2 classic goals at the quarter-final of National Cup, making V-League goalkeeper Bassey Akpan excessive at the goal.

There was no doubt at Bassey Akpan class as he used to be comrade of many famous Nigerian players such as John Obi Mikel, Taye Taiwo…in the team shirt of the blue eagle. Since wearing HAGL shirt, he was always considered the best goalkeeper in V-League with a lot of incredible saves. However, when facing Ninh Binh in the quarter-finals on 10 July afternoon, “Spiderman” of HAGL suffered a loss with the superior finish of Van Quyen.

Van Quyen with two masterpieces in the quarter-finals of National Cup. Photo: An Nhon.

 
Both of “Chubby” Quyen’s classic goals in the 16^th and 28^th minute occurred at the same place about 18 to 19 meters away from the goal. The first situation came from the kick at his favorite position where he would draw a curve to the left of the corner that goalkeeper Bassey Akpan could only reacted as usual because he almost had no chance to touch the ball.

In his peak, Quyen regularly scored this way. Quyen’s Master from the youth team, Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh, once said that if the ball was put in a position before the 16m50 line and slightly angled to the left, Quyen could score 6 over 10 goals in free kicks. This time, as soon as the first opportunity, Quyen found his first goal for his new team Ninh Binh.

When it seemed that one goal after more than 1 year of misfire was enough for Quyen, he set up another beautiful masterpiece 12 minutes later. From the pass of Dinh Van Ta to the position that he just scored, Van Quyen once again fired an extremely difficult shot that made the ball out of the reach of HAGL goalkeeper to be into the net. In this situation, the Nigerian goalkeeper was just like a clown and a background for Van Quyen to shine brightly.

The two goals scored in this match helped Van Quyen remove the psychological burden that was weighing on his shoulders and have an uplifting play when in the field. The goal at this high level indicated that if Quyen determined to exercise to lose weight and regain full fitness, he was still very useful in the top game.

Fans cheered for Van Quyen’s score

Two goals from Van Quyen helped Ninh Binh to be more advantageous in the second half but they were about not to take full advantage. After the own goal (header) from Chu Ngoc Anh in the 61th minute, Le Van Duan received a red card for going against the referee 1 minute later. With 10 men on the field, the home team was almost equalized for several times but fortunately HAGL had no advantage over the dominance.

Eventually, Ninh Binh took the win 2 goals to 1 against HAGL, the top team in V-League to be qualified for the semi-final of the National Cup.

Quarter-finals of the National Cup 2013
On 10 July
17h Ninh Binh – HAGL 2-1

17h Thanh Hoa – Dong Nai 0-1
On 11 July

16h30 Da Nang – Quang Nam

17h Dong Tam – Hanoi T&T

Nguyen Tung