Asian Cup 2019: The fate of Vietnam and Jordan
(Baonghean.vn) - The two fated opponents Vietnam and Jordan meet again in the round of 16. Both teams have succeeded when being considered the "underdogs", even Jordan is considered the "dark horse" of the tournament. This is the match with the hardest score prediction in the round of 16, simply because they have too many similarities.
Coach Park Hang-seo and his team have just set a historic milestone for Southeast Asian football at the Asian Cup. It is the first time a reigning Southeast Asian champion (AFF Cup) has reached the knockout round of the continent's most prestigious tournament.
Southeast Asian Football Awakens
With a 2-0 victory over Yemen, coach Park Hang-seo and his team finished third in Group D and secured a "survival ticket" to the round of 16. This is the first time the reigning Southeast Asian champions have won 3 points at the Asian Cup Finals. In the 23-year history of the AFF Cup, the champions have all failed to make it to the Asian Cup Finals that followed.
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| The style of play that coach Jamal Abu Abed applies to the Jordan team is quite similar to the style of play of the Vietnam team. Photo: AFC |
For the first time, Southeast Asian football has had two representatives pass the group stage. The fact that two out of three regional teams are allowed to continue makes Asian teams look at the “lowland” with a very different eye.
At the 2019 Asian Cup, Vietnam and Thailand are the two excellent Southeast Asian football representatives who have made it to the round of 16. The "Golden Star Warriors" will compete with Jordan in the match taking place at 6pm on January 20, while Thailand will face China at 9pm on the same day.
In a pleasant surprise, if Jordan became the first team to qualify for the group stage of the tournament, after a 2-0 victory over Syria, Vietnam would be the last team to have this honor. Not highly rated before the 2019 Asian Cup, but the Jordan team played very well. Jordan created the biggest surprise of the 2019 Asian Cup, when defeating defending champion Australia with a 1-0 victory.
Fateful reunion
Interestingly, Jordan's draw with Palestine in the final match of Group B gave them the opportunity to face the Vietnamese team. Jordan indirectly helped Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Oman to qualify. All three teams have 3 points, 1 point more than Palestine.
Up to now, many Palestinian players regret that if they had not had a goalless draw against Jordan, they, not Vietnam, would have advanced. Although they won 3rd place, having only 2 points made them lose their advantage when their competitors only needed one win to advance, including Vietnam.
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| In the 6 encounters between the two football teams in the past 10 years, Vietnam only won 1 match, Jordan won 3 matches, and the remaining 2 were draws. Photo: AFC |
Of the 8 matches, the confrontation between Vietnam and Jordan is considered the most evenly matched. In the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers, the two teams were tied after 2 matches. According to FIFA rankings, Jordan is ranked 109th, 9 places below Vietnam. However, according to the Elo ranking (WFER), which is calculated based on many complex factors such as match significance, home field advantage, number of goals scored/lost, etc., and with this ranking, Jordan is ranked 76th, while Vietnam is only ranked 128th.
The way of stoneCoachJamal Abu Abed applied to the Jordan team quite similar to the way the Vietnam team played. But their level is higher thanks to the advantage of physique and physical strength. Jordan has a better physique and physical strength than Vietnam with an average height of 1m8. In the 6 encounters between the two football teams in the past 10 years, Vietnam only won 1 match, Jordan won 3 matches, the remaining 2 were draws.
At the 2019 Asian Cup, Jordan is a team that is very good at taking advantage of set pieces. 2/3 of their goals in the group stage came from corner kicks. The ability to counter set pieces of coachCoachJamal Abu Abed was also excellent. The tall strikers of Syria, Australia, Palestine could not win the high corners and set pieces in front of the goal.
In fact, Jordan is not completely superior to Vietnam if they are placed as the favorites, Jordan even appears harmless when playing as the favorites. In the last match against Palestine, they were rated higher and controlled the ball for the whole match up to 69% but had to accept a draw with Palestine. Jordan is dangerous in high-speed counter-attacks but lacks players to penetrate when the opponent defends with many people.
