ASEAN Cup 2024: The home ground nightmare
Home advantage is always a factor for teams, but that's not entirely true at the ASEAN Cup 2024. At least not after the first two rounds of the group stage.
After the first two matches in the group stage, the Thai team andVietnam national teamSecuring resounding victories away from home is not surprising. After all, with a squad considered far superior, wins are inevitable for these title contenders.
Indonesia's victory in Yangon against the home team Myanmar was a bit more hard-fought. It was hard-fought because Myanmar created several good scoring opportunities but failed to capitalize on them. Meanwhile, Indonesia took advantage of their trademark throw-ins to score the only goal of the match.
Thus, after the first four matches, three host teams suffered defeats, while the remaining team only managed one draw. Although this was a commendable draw for the Cambodian team, it also signals the difficulties facing host teams in this year's tournament.
This was even more evident in the second match. Despite losing 10-0 in the previous game, the underdog East Timor team still managed to make the host nation Malaysia sweat. They took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first half thanks to two lightning-fast counter-attacks, fought bravely, and only allowed the home team to turn the game around in the final minutes of the second half. These were the impressive moments that the East Timor team created at Bukit Jalil.
Even more impressive than East Timor isLaos national teamThey secured a 3-3 draw against the Indonesian team at Stadion Manahan. Remarkably, the Laotian team took the lead twice and had a good chance of winning when playing with a man advantage for the final 25 minutes. However, this 3-3 draw is still a successful result for coach Ha Hyeok-jun's team, and it remains the biggest surprise of the tournament so far.
Similar to Indonesia, the Philippines national team also drew with Myanmar at home. The scenario was similar: the visiting team took the lead, and the home team struggled to find an equalizer.
Perhaps the only team that benefited from playing at home was Singapore. The island nation's team was lucky to have two goals gifted to them by the Cambodian goalkeeper. Without these two opportunities, it would have been very difficult for Singapore to win against the rapidly reforming Cambodian team.
With the home teams having performed poorly in recent matches, this serves as a warning for the Vietnamese national team ahead of their upcoming game. This is because the first home game for coach Kim Sang-sik's squad will be against Indonesia.
Although the Indonesian team may not have performed successfully in their last match, coach Shin Tae-yong's squad still poses a significant threat, especially from throw-ins and set pieces. All four of their goals were scored.IndonesiaAll of these tactics originate from these signature attacking moves. Therefore, the Vietnamese team will have to devise strategies to counter these troublesome attacks in order to achieve a good result at Viet Tri Stadium.
Although only two rounds of matches have been played, the surprises that the ASEAN Cup 2024 has brought signal a highly exciting tournament for the audience. It will also serve as a valuable lesson for the strong teams and title contenders to learn from in the upcoming matches of this year's tournament.
The match between the Vietnam National Team and the Indonesia National Team will take place at 8:00 PM on December 15th at Viet Tri Stadium, Phu Tho Province.
