AFF Cup 2020: Vietnam team aims to defend championship title

First of all, it must be said that the Vietnamese team has a fairly favorable match schedule.Coach Park Hang-seo and his teamwill begin their journey to defend their AFF Cup title with a match against Laos on December 6. Our team will have the second match off. After that, the difficulty will gradually increase when Coach Park Hang-seo's team has two important matches against the heavyweights of Group B, Malaysia (December 12) and Indonesia (December 15). In the final match of the group stage, the Vietnamese team will face Cambodia (December 19). The match schedule has made it so that the Malaysian and Indonesian teams will have a decisive match in the final match to win the second ticket.

Coach Park Hang-seo has never lost to any opponent in the region since taking charge of the Vietnamese team. Photo: Hai Hoang

Although Laos and Cambodia have made a lot of progress recently, the two tickets to the next round in Group B still seem to be a competition between Malaysia, Indonesia and the defending champion Vietnam. The Laos and Cambodia teams are only capable of being "dark horses" causing difficulties for the remaining 3 teams rather than going deep into the tournament. Of course, with the current position of number 1 in Southeast Asia, we do not have to be wary of any opponent, on the contrary, the teams have to calculate when facing Vietnam. Surely both Malaysia and Indonesia have to calculate how to get the most beneficial result when meeting Vietnam before facing each other.

The Vietnam team is the current champion of the AFF Cup and SEA Games, the only representative of the region to reach the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia. On the FIFA rankings, for more than a year now, the Vietnam team has maintained its position in the top 100. Thailand, the seeded team in Group 1 with us, is ranked 122nd, this is also the second team in Southeast Asia. Although the rankings are only for reference, they also partly show the strength of the teams.

The Vietnamese team is the only representative of the region to reach the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia. Photo: Hai Hoang

Coach Park Hang-seo has never lost to any opponent in the region since taking charge of the Vietnamese team. In the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, Que Ngoc Hai and his teammates won all four matches against Malaysia and Indonesia. Whether playing away or at home, we have shown our superior ability and methodical attacks. The Indonesian team has made progress under the guidance of Korean coach Shin Tae-yong, but the 4-0 victory of the Vietnamese team in June showed that the team from the archipelago is still below Van Duc and his teammates. Our varied and flexible playing style has made it very difficult for the opponent to deal with and scoring a goal is only a matter of time.

According to experts in Group B, the Malaysian team is probably the most formidable opponent for the Vietnamese team. This is also the opponent with the most fateful history with the Vietnamese team under coach Park Hang-seo, with a total of 5 encounters, the most among Southeast Asian countries.

Although the home team drew in the first leg of the AFF Cup 2018 final, the confrontations with coach Tan Cheng Hoe's team were always tense, causing the Vietnamese team to struggle. We were better than our opponents because we had individuals who made a difference in the decisive moments of the match, so we won.

With the above analysis, we are confident to defend the AFF Cup 2020 championship. A little difficulty when V.League is temporarily suspended, the national team players are participating in tournaments, so coach Park will adjust the training plan. Facing strong teams like Japan, Australia or Saudi Arabia will help our players mature./.