Nam Dinh began their V.League 1 campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Hoang Anh Gia Lai on Saturday evening. The hosts took all three points from their opening fixture, while their visitors started the season with a heavy defeat. It was a match that showed exactly why the table looked the way it did before kick-off.
Ezequiel was the man of the hour for Nam Dinh, netting twice in quick succession. He opened the scoring in the thirty-seventh minute, then doubled his tally just before half-time. To be fair, the Argentine forward had been waiting for this moment, and here's the thing — when he gets into a rhythm like that, defenders don't know where to look first.
The statistics tell the story of a team that controlled proceedings from start to finish. Nam Dinh registered 129 attacks compared to their visitors' 80, and on target they were ruthless. Fourteen shots found the goal area while Hoang Anh Gia Lai managed just one. By then, the visitors were already playing catch-up.
Romulo added a third goal just before the break in the forty-fifth minute plus four, and S. Xuan made it four in stoppage time. The second half saw plenty of changes on both sides, but the result was never really in doubt. Nam Dinh had the game won inside twenty minutes after half-time, and their substitutions were about managing the lead rather than chasing it.
The shot-on-target figures really tell you everything. Nam Dinh hit the target fourteen times with ten shots going astray, while their opponents managed only one shot on target from seven attempts off target. That's not just a bad evening for Hoang Anh Gia Lai — that's a team that had nothing to do all evening.
Nam Dinh now sit top of the table with three points from one game, while Hoang Anh Gia Lai are bottom after their opening loss. The hosts had shown glimpses of improvement in their previous season, and this was the kind of statement result that suggests they might be serious contenders this time around.