Asian Cup 2019: “Dissecting” Vietnam National Team’s direct group stage opponents

This is the first time the Yemen national team has competed in the Asian Cup, led by Slovakian coach Jan Kocian. During the period 2006-2008, this Czechoslovakian national team player led the Slovakian national team and for many years was the head coach of Polish clubs Ruch Chorzów, Pogoń Szczecin, Podbeskidzie before taking over the Yemen national team to replace coach Mebratu.

hard to comeAsian Cup 2019

In fact, since 1972, the South Yemen national team has participated in the Asian Cup. After that, South Yemen and North Yemen merged together, forming the current Yemen nation. So the 2019 Asian Cup is the first time that a unified Yemen team has participated.

Most of the Yemen national team players are over 24 years old. Photo: Internet

Yemen’s qualification to the 2019 Asian Cup is a feat in itself. Coach Abraham Mebratu, who led the team through the qualifiers, said: “Nearly 19 million people in Yemen are in urgent need of food aid. The team has overcome many difficulties to be able to play in the 2019 Asian Cup."

Journalist Mani Djazmi said about coach Mebratu - who helped Yemen qualify for the Asian Cup: "To select players, Mebratu had to search on seven-a-side football pitches. Two of his students were shot during the civil war in Yemen. They often had to travel 48 hours to play away, but still participated in the 2019 Asian Cup finals."

According to the match schedule, the Vietnamese team will face Yemen in the third match, which is considered favorable for coach Park Hang-seo and his team.

Simple kick

On the FIFA rankings, Yemen is ranked 125th - 25 places lower than the Vietnam national team. The team consists of players playing in the domestic league. The remaining few (8 players) play for the Qatar national championship.

In 2018, the Yemen team only played 3 matches, won 1 (Nepal 2-1) and lost 2 (lost to Saudi Arabia 0-1, UAE 0-2), in the Middle East region this team is not highly rated. Their attacking tactics are quite simple, the ball is launched into open spaces for strikers Al Hagri (10), Ali Mansour (20) to score. Yemen players are strong in defense, fighting for the ball but their ability to coordinate attacks is quite limited.

Mr. Jan Kocian brought to the UAE to attend the 2019 Asian Cup a squad of 23 players: 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders and 4 strikers. Photo: Internet

We can point out some veteran names of this Middle Eastern team such as midfielder Al-Sasi (9), 31 years old, has 8 goals for the team, considered the most dangerous striker of Yemen. 24 years old striker, midfielder Al-Matari, after 29 appearances for the team, also has 5 goals.

The youngest player in the team is midfielder Ahmed Abdulhakim Al-Sarori (20 years old), wearing the number 7 shirt, who will compete with Quang Hai for the title of best young player. So far, after 18 appearances for the national team, this talented player has scored 2 goals. 8 players currently playing for clubs in the Qatar National Championship are all in the main squad of this team.

Mr. Jan Kocian brought to the UAE to participate in the 2019 Asian Cup a squad of 23 players, including 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders and 4 strikers. The midfield is considered the strength of this team, the gap between the official players and the reserve players is not significant. It is not the strikers but the Yemeni midfielders who scored the goals, they scored 17/24 goals, while the strikers only scored 4 goals. The remaining two goals were scored by Yemeni defenders.

Mr. Le Hoai Anh, General Secretary of VFF, did not hesitate to confirm: "The door to the round of 16 will be opened if we limit losses to Iran and Iraq and win big."Yemen. Your team probably calculated the same, the problem is who can execute it.

Compared to the Yemen team, we are facing many advantages, which allows fans to think a lot about the victory of coach Park Hang-seo and his team.