Vietnam Beach Vacation guiding how to travel along Vietnam Coast : Start in Mui Ne Beach, one of the prettiest of Vietnam's beach resorts. Windsurf, sand board, kite sail or just chill out before heading up the Cham coast of culture. Veer off the trail to the atmospheric Cham tower of Po Ro Me, a home to bats on an isolated hill. Continue north to Thap Cham to visit the famous Po Klong Garai Cham Towers from the 13th century. Further up the coast is Nha Trang, Vietnam's honky-tonk beach capital, but you can also dose up on culture at the Po Nagar Cham Towers. Carrying up the coast are Cham towers and beaches in abundance. Keep up with the Cham at Tuy Hoa. Quy Nhon and Tam Ky. Break for the beach at Doc Let, Whale Island or My Khe. Head into Hoi An, a charming old port town and a base for the Cham finale. Make a day trip to the former Cham capital of My Son, spectacularly situated under the shadow of Cat's Tooth Mountain. Finally romp into Danang to put it all into perspective at the Museum of Cham Sculpture, home to the world's finest collection of Cham sculpture. Oh, and by the way, central Vietnam has a 30km-long beach running from Danang to Hoi An. Call it China Beach to the north, Cua Dai Beach to the south - either way it's paradise and the perfect end to this trip.

Vietnamese martial art Vovinam will be an official event at the 26th South East Asian Games in Indonesia next year, according to an announcement made at a three-day meeting which ended in Jakarta May 30.

At first, most representatives at the meeting agreed to the proposal,  but officials from Malaysia and the Philippines did not.

However, as the host of the next biennial SEA Games, Indonesia strongly supported the idea and the Vietnamese delegation eventually persuaded everyone to agree.

Other events like Muay Thai kickboxing and body building were proposed but they were not accepted.

The SEA Games Vovinam competitions will take place on the island of Bali.

The World Vovinam Federation and Vietnam Vovinam Federation will send leading instructors and coaches to the countries in the region to provide training.

The Vietnamese are Asia"s second biggest football fans, trailing only Indonesians, as 68 percent of consumers in the country said they were planning on following the 2010 World Cup, a global survey has found.

With 52 percent of respondents in Vietnam saying they were fans of the game, a survey conducted by The Nielsen Company concluded that Vietnamese were the second most avid football followers in the Asia Pacific region.

Around the world, Brazilians were the most fervent of football followers, with 69 percent describing themselves as a fan of the game, followed by Portugal and then Egypt.

But the appeal of the World Cup finals, which kicks off Friday, appears to reach far beyond football’s usual fan base, the company said. Intent to follow the World Cup is much higher than the traditional football fan base, with 55 percent of consumers in the Asia Pacific planning to follow the games, despite the fact that only 28 percent described themselves as football fans.

The survey also found that 85 percent of Vietnamese World Cup followers would watch the games via live TV broadcasts – the second highest ration out of the 14 countries surveyed in the Asia Pacific region.

Vietnam’s male volleyball squad left Wednesday for the 2010 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship that will take place in China’s Zhenjiang from June 5-13.

The Vietnamese men will clash with Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and hosts China in Group A while Thailand will play in Group B against Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Bahrain and Malaysia.

The nine-day event will select the best squads for the 2010 Men"s Club World Volleyball Championship in Doha this December.

Dancers from around the country are set to compete at the Open National Dance Sport Championships 2010 in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday and Friday.

The competition at the city’s Phan Dinh Phung Sports Center aims to discover new members for the national dance team as well as prepare dancers for the sixth national dance sport championships in October.

Two judges from Europe are invited to work with Vietnamese judges at the June 24-25 sporting event, which is co-organized by Vietnam’s Physical Training Federation and the HCMC Physical Training Federation.

Binh Duong remains at the top of Vietnam’s top-tier V-League after a 2-0 away win over low-ranked side Nam Dinh in the 15th round at Nam Dinh Stadium on Sunday.

The hosts Nam Dinh led an attack from the start, meaning that visitors Binh Duong had to play defensively.

After being under pressure for the first few minutes, the 2007-08 V-League champs Binh Duong improved their defense, started attacking and created chances.

Binh Duong took the lead after Nigerian defender Egbo Osita headed home a free kick by Vu Phong from the right.

The visitors Binh Duong scored again four minutes later after striker Anh Duc’s header defeated Nam Dinh’s goalkeeper Ngoc Tu for the second time.

Binh Duong now leads the league with 31 points while Nam Dinh, with only eight points, are very likely to be relegated to the country’s second-tier First Division.

Reigning champs Da Nang slid one spot to third with 28 points after being held to a 1-1 draw by the Mekong Delta team Dong Thap on home soil at Chi Lang Stadium.

The draw kept Dong Thap in fourth position, three points adrift of Da Nang, who have booked their berth in Asia’s second-tier AFC Cup quarterfinals.

Hanoi T&T climbed one place to second with 28 points after taking a 3-1 away victory at Nha Trang Stadium over Khanh Hoa, who remains in eighth position.

In other action, 2003-04 league champions Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) drew 1-1 with Hoa Phat Hanoi at Hang Day Stadium.

HAGL remained in tenth position while the Hanoi side fell three spots to twelfth out of the 14 teams in the league.

The league’s 2005-06 champions Dong Tam Long An (DTLA) took a 1-0 away win over the 2001 champions Nghe An at Vinh Stadium.

DTLA climbed one place to 11th with 18 points while Nghe An remained in seventh with 20 points.

Ninh Binh moved one place up to fifth after a 3-0 home win over Navibank Saigon, who remains in penultimate place with 11 points.

Thanh Hoa defeated Hai Phong Cement 4-1 and jumped two places to ninth with 19 points while Hai Phong slid one position to sixth with 23 points.

When a World Cup season starts, it’s time for wives to do everything possible just to make sure their husbands watch the games within their sight.

The wives in our neighborhood often worked together. They brought the TVs to the sidewalk, cleaned the street and prepared enough beer and food for their husbands.

And every night, when we watched a match outside in our comfy seats, our wives would do the washing and cleaning and take care of the kids. But if they heard us cry out “Dzo!” aloud, they would immediately run out to see what happened. Of course we did this whenever a goal was scored, or just to say cheers as we drank the beer.

These nights produced many funny stories.

The first story.

One of the wives decided to break the habit. One night she brought the chair outside and sat next to her husband. He was surprised. “What is this about?” he asked. “The handsome Beckham is playing, so I have to watch,” she replied calmly.

During the game, every time Beckham got the ball, she stood up and cheered. Every time he made a shot, she jumped up and down in excitement. The husband was not happy with all the cheerleading. He threw her angry glances and made hissing sounds.

Then Beckham got a red card and had to leave. “Ha ha, I knew it,” the husband laughed. “Kick him out. Beckham huh? Poor you Beckham, your lover gave you bad luck.”

“Lover? Who?” she was puzzled.

“Who else is here?” he hissed.

The wife understood suddenly. She stormed back inside and did not come back for the rest of the game.

The second story.

Another wife loved Roberto Baggio and she only watched games that he played. It was the first match of the 1998 World Cup, between Italy and Chile. Italy was about to take a penalty kick.

Suddenly, her husband stood up and held her hand. He dragged her inside the house. “You need to leave,” he said.

After she went out of sight, he said her idol Baggio had missed the decisive penalty in the final of the previous World Cup.

That’s because she loved him so much she haunted him, he said.

This time Baggio did not miss. “See. She left and he scored,” the husband was thrilled. The wife, tired of waiting, walked out. She was livid because she couldn’t see her beloved Baggio score. But she didn’t say a word.

The third story.

This wife couldn’t tell one team from another. But she would watch any game in which one of the team was in red, simply because red is the color of Vietnam’s national team.

One night, the Portuguese wore red. She sat watching with us for a while, but then she was disappointed.

“Hong Son (famous Vietnamese footballer) is not playing. I don’t want to watch anymore,” she sighed and walked away.

Beer spluttered all over the place as we could not contain our mirth. When Vietnam can really make it to the World Cup, none of us would be alive. She was really naive.

The last story.

The fourth wife knew more about football than any other wives in the neighborhood. Just like her husband, she considered herself a commentator. Together they would take turns to talk about the game. The problem was they had different ideas. If he said yes, she would just say no.

On the same night that Baggio scored for Italy, the husband commented: “This 1-1 draw is a really meaningful score. Really meaningful.”

“ 1-1 is just 1-1. There’s nothing meaningful in that,” the wife disagreed.

“No? Let me show you. If I write the number 1 on your left thigh, and another 1 on your right thigh, which number will that be?”

“11,” she replied quickly.

“Wrong,” he said. “It’s 101. Can you see how meaningful it is now?”

The wife knew she’d been upstaged. But it was not in her to give up just like that.

“Nice. My turn now. If I write the number 1 on each of your thighs, what number is that?” she challenged.

“Too easy. It’s 111.”

We laughed until it hurt and absolutely agreed with the answer. But she shook her head. “Wrong. I’m going to give you one more shot.”

The husband thought he knew what his wife was getting at. “Oh I forgot. It must be 10101,” he laughed.

That was really smart of him, we thought. But to our surprise, she still shook her head.

“Then what number is it?” the husband asked.

“Normally that would be right. But you are watching football every night like this, so it’s only 1,1.”

By Nguyen The Thinh

* Note: Vietnamese use the decimal comma instead of the decimal point.

Hanoi won the women’s gold medal while Ho Chi Minh City took the men’s championship at the sixth national contest that ended in Thanh Hoa Province on Friday June 18.

In the men’s event, the players from Ho Chi Minh City earned the gold medal after beating contestants from Hanoi and Soc Trang Province in the doubles and team categories.

In the women’s competition, Hanoi players grabbed the gold medal by defeating competitors from Quang Ninh Province in the doubles and beating the Ministry of Public Security in the team category.

After the national event, the best players will gather to prepare for the 25th King’s Cup Sepak Takraw World Championship 2010 in Thailand from July 27 till August 1.

The Vietnamese boys playing for Ho Chi Minh City-based Scavi Rocheteau have impressed with their performance at the Under-17 French Cup in Bordeaux.

Although they ended up in seventh place in a field of 16, it was a creditable showing considering they were up against top level competition, including French clubs like Bordeaux, Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain, and a team from Norway.

Newspapers Floirac and Bordeaux provinces on Monday lavished praise on the Vietnamese young men for their quality performances.

They were an awarded an honorary trophy along with other presents.

Michel Deschamps, chief of the event’s organizing board, praised the Vietnamese boys and said that although they finished seventh, they were the only squad that managed to hold the tournament’s champions ES Troyes from Montpellier and the runners-up FC Tours from Toulouse to draws.

The Vietnamese players claimed the seventh place after beating Le Mans 3-2 in the penalty shootout.

Professional football coach Henry Atamaniuk and friend Dominique Rocheteau, a former French national team player, established the Scavi Rocheteau Football Training Center (SRC) in Ho Chi Minh City in June 2007 to train Vietnamese teenagers aged 13-14.

SRC is funded by three partners – SCAVI Vietnam Company founded by Rocheteau’s overseas Vietnamese friend Tran Van Phu, Rocheteau himself, and the HCMC Football Federation – with Atamaniuk serving as chief of the center’s training program.

Football has a pedigree dating back to mediaeval England, when villagers hoofed an inflated pig’s bladder around a muddy paddock.

Today, though, the 22 players on the pitch are supported by a ghost squad of scientists drawing on biomechanics, physics, nutrition, psychology and other performance-enhancing disciplines.

Here are some examples of how science has helped to change football, answer riddles and end hearsay.

FAKING A FALL:

How can you tell when a player is diving? One telltale is the “archer’s bow,” says British psychologist Paul Morris. This is when a player falls with both arms in the air, with open palms, chest thrust out and legs bent at the knee, like a sprung archery bow. “This occurs in many dives but biomechanically it does not occur in a natural fall,” says Morris. “Instead, instinctively the arms go down in an attempt to cushion the fall or out to the side for balance.”

NOW IT’S OFFICIAL:

Those who say football is the world’s most exciting game can take comfort in statistics. Footy beat four other major sports (American football, ice hockey, baseball and basketball) for “upset frequency” when the underdog won, according to data crunchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Mexico, whose 2006 study pored over top club results dating back to 1888. American football was the most predictable. Its “upset frequency” was a whopping 25 percent less than soccer.

STOPPAGE TIME:

Unhealthy men should beware when watching a penalty shoot-out. Hospital admissions for cardiac arrests in England and Wales rose by 25 percent when England lost to Argentina on penalties on June 30 1998 and on the following two days after their World Cup tie. In the 1996 European Championships, the death rate in the Netherlands from heart attack or stroke went up by around 50 percent on the day when Holland were knocked out by France on penalties. In both cases, the sharp increases were only seen among men, not women.

HIGHS AND LOWS:

High-altitude countries are known for the advantage they have when playing at home, when low-altitude opponents struggle in the thin air. Less well known: they retain an edge when playing away. A 2007 paper in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) looked at a century of results among international matches in 10 South American countries. In the case of two teams from the same altitude, the probability of the home side winning was 53 percent. This rose to 82 percent for an altitude difference of +3,695 meters (12,008 feet), as when high-altitude Bolivia were at home to sea-level Brazil. But it fell to 21 percent when the altitude difference was -3,696 metres (12,008 feet), such as when Brazil were at home to Bolivia.

NO NET GAINS:

Three common beliefs about patterns in goal scoring are false, according to football statisticians gathered at a workshop at Germany’s University of Mannheim in 2006. 1) There is no evidence that players who scored in a previous match are any likelier to score in their next game; 2) a goal scored just before half time has no greater impact on the outcome of the game than a goal scored earlier in the first half; and 3) teams that have just scored are not especially more vulnerable to conceding a goal than at other times.

HOME AND HORMONES:

Could biology explain home advantage? British researchers Sandy Wolfson and Nick Neave took levels of testerone from players before a home game, an away game and at a training session. Levels were much higher before a home game. The male hormone is linked with dominance, confidence and aggression, which implies the lads psyched up to defend their territory.

SEEING RED:

Football clubs with red team strips are more successful than rivals with other colors, according to a 2008 analysis of post-World War II English league data by experts from the universities of Durham and Plymouth. Red-wearing teams (such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal) won more often, while teams wearing yellow or orange fared worst. The theory: there’s a psychological boost from wearing red, a color which is often associated in nature with male aggression and display.

HOW IT’S SPUN: Remember Roberto Carlos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5XpXU8TBoo) scoring “the Impossible Goal,” a swerving spot kick against France in 1997? How did he do it? Some say it’s because Carlos is Brazilian. Physicists, though, point to a combination of the Magnus force and Bernoulli’s principle. Just after a kick, a spinning ball moves forward at relatively high velocity, and the air flows irregularly over it. When the ball slows – specifically, when it is between 29-37 kilometers (18-23 miles) per hour – the airflow becomes smooth, or “laminar,” which instantly boosts the air’s braking effect, sometimes by as much as 150 percent. This drastically brakes the forward movement of the ball and enhances a curving movement derived from the ball’s spin. So Carlos’ goal initially dipped to the right of the defensive wall and then suddenly swerved into the net, leaving the French dumbfounded.

DIGITAL FUTURE:

Punters looking for a tip on this year’s World Cup winners might be advised to take a close look at players’ hands. John Manning from Britain’s University of Liverpool suggests there is a link between the lengths of a footballer’s fingers and his ability as a player. Looking at British players, Manning found that the footballing elite had longer ring fingers compared to their index fingers. Manning’s theory is early exposure to testosterone in the womb is a key to heart formation and spatial judgment and finger length, which is why digits can be a telltale, but not a prediction, of prowess.

ALE’S OUT:

Those who contend that drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages helps post-match recovery are addled, say medical researchers. In a New Zealand study published in January in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sports, volunteers carried out strenuous exercise, which was followed by a meal. Some drank orange juice, while the other drank OJ and vodka, the equivalent to around eight standard alcoholic drinks. The guinea pigs were measured a day and a half, and then two days and a half, after exercise. The alcohol group had 15-20 percent less muscular force than the non-alcohol group, and also reported more soreness. “Even moderate amounts of alcohol” are out.

Vietnam’s leading international grandmasters are expected to fight to the finish at 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia this fall.

Vietnam’s big names include international grandmasters Le Quang Liem, Dao Thien Hai, Nguyen Anh Dung and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.

The 39th edition of the Olympiad takes place from September 19 till October 4 this year.

At the 38th annual contest in Dresden, Germany, last year the Vietnamese team finished ninth out of 154 teams, placing better than big rivals like India, Georgia, Bulgaria and Britain.

So far, Vietnam and China are the only two Asian countries that have registered for the top-level chess competition.

This is also a good opportunity for the Vietnamese players to prepare for the 16th Asian Games that will take place in Guangzhou, China this November.

Vietnam’s top female gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh finished second in both the vault and balance beam at the 2010 Portugal World Cup that ended in Porto on Sunday June 20.

This is the first time a Vietnamese gymnast has won medals at such an event.

Ha Thanh was behind Brazilian gymnast Daniele Hypólito in the vault and behind Colombian contestant Nathalia Sanchez in the balance beam, with Venezuelan competitor Lopezz Jessica winning the bronze medal in both games.

The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) World Cup is the top-level competition that FIG organizes to create opportunities for the world’s leading contestants to prepare for the main event, the 2010 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, to be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands this October.

The FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup circuit will return in September with events in Ghent, Belgium from Sept. 11-12, Kiev, Ukraine from Sept. 18-19 and Ostrava, Czech Republic from Sept. 22-Oct. 2.

The South Koreans are favored to steal away both the men’s and women’s championship titles at a table tennis tournament in Ba Ria Vung Tau next week.

A hundred plus players from South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and host Vietnam will compete at the International Golden Table Tennis Paddle Competition July 13-18.

Organizers said they expected the Thai team to take second place in the women’s category thanks to big names like Nanthana Komwong (ranked 89th in the world), Anisara Muangsuk (ranked 122nd) and Suthasini Sawettabut (107th).

Singapore looks powerful in the men’s category with strong players like Ma Liang (ranked 164th) and Liu Zhongze (190th).

Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong have only sent young players to the competition for training and to gain the experience needed for bigger competitions later.

Vietnam has four teams: the national team, the Ho Chi Minh City team, Petrovietnam and Vietsovpetro.

Petrovietnam has Vietnam’s number one player Doan Kien Quoc and two Chinese teammates Kou Lei and Yang Cei while Vietsovpetro has a female Chinese player Yang Xiao. They are expected to fair well at the event.

Nguyen Trong Truc, deputy director of HCMC Table Tennis Federation, said this is the first time Vietnam has foreign players playing for Vietnamese clubs at the event.

Binh Dien Long An came in seventh place out of 10 teams at the Asian Women Volleyball Club Championships in Indonesia last week.

This is the first time the Vietnamese female volleyball club has competed at an official international women’s volleyball tournament.

On the last day of the four-day event in Gresik on Monday (July 5), Binh Dien Long An came from a set down to take a 3-1 win over the Iranian club Zobahan.

The Thai club Federbrau won the championship after coming from behind to beat Zhetyssu from Kazakhstan 3-1 in the final match.

The championship also earned Federbrau a place at the 2010 Women"s Club World Volleyball Championships to take place in Doha, Qatar from December 14-21.