AFF Cup Semi-Finals: The Philippines' Achilles' heel and 3 weaknesses of the Vietnam National Team

Quang Hai pointed out the "fatal" weakness of the Philippines

Before the encounter with the Philippines in the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2018, Quang Hai had some comments about his opponent. The midfielder of Hanoi FC said that coach Eriksson's team has a fairly modern playing style but does not have any special tactics. Besides, he also said that the opponent's "weak point" lies in the position of central defender Alvaro Silva.

After watching the match between Indonesia and the Philippines, Quang Hai said: “The Philippines played with a 4-4-2 formation. They have a fairly modern and open style of play but there is nothing too special. Among them, central defender Alvaro Silva, who was my teammate at Hanoi FC (in 2017), is a player with good height but handles situations slowly.

They may not have used their full strength in this match, so we cannot have a comprehensive view. However, I pay special attention to the Philippines' attacks on the left wing. They mainly attack on this wing and then switch to the right wing when approaching the 16m50 area, thereby making the attack situation unpredictable."

The 3 biggest problems of the Vietnam team

Ineffective finishing:Statistics show that we have fired 59 shots after 4 group stage matches but only 27 of them were on target and Vietnam only scored 8 goals. The accuracy rate of the players' shots is less than 50%.

Typical of our ineffectiveness in finishing was in the two matches against Myanmar and Cambodia. In both matches, Vietnam had dozens of shots, against Myanmar we had 15 shots on goal but only 5 were on target, and against Cambodia we had 25 shots but only 12 were on target. These were huge wastes of opportunities and such inefficiency was very worrying when we played the two semi-final matches against the Philippines.

Match with Malaysia Team. Photo: Internet

It is hard to imagine that Vietnam will have as many chances to score against the Philippines as they did against Cambodia, or even Myanmar. If against the Philippines we still shoot so “gentle” and inaccurately, finding a goal will become very difficult.

Remember, we are better at using our feet than our heads (only 2/8 goals were scored by heading, of which only 1 was a well-coordinated goal), but the players' feet are still so unsharp, which is really worrying.

Depends a lot on Quang Hai and Van Duc:Whether attacking or counter-attacking, the performance of the Vietnamese team depends a lot on Quang Hai and Van Duc. These are two players with the highest potential to create breakthroughs thanks to their ability to move flexibly, handle the ball well in narrow spaces, dribble and can shoot with few touches.

Quang Hai (middle) started to play well in the ball distribution position even though Laos was not a high-dose test. Photo: Anh Duc

Both Quang Hai and Van Duc are players who rarely make unnecessary movements and often make precise decisions when handling the ball. They know when to keep the ball, when to dribble, pass or shoot. They know how to occupy space and they also work well together. They can play independently or coordinate well.

But our other attacking players do not have those qualities. Therefore, it will be very worrying for us if the opponent tries to find every way to "eliminate" Van Duc and Quang Hai by surrounding them in large numbers, marking them too much individually and being ready to foul them to prevent them from playing the ball.

From people to gameplay, everything has been "exposed"?Although Mr. Park Hang Seo is very good at creating surprises for opponents from small details, but I wonder if he can still create surprises like that at this point? In terms of personnel, it can be said that the Korean coach has used all the best players available.

Coach Park Hang Seo. Photo: Trung Kien

Van Hau, Cong Phuong, Quang Hai, Anh Duc, Van Duc, Trong Hoang... have all shown their outstanding qualities. In terms of tactics, it is certainly difficult to expect the team to surprise with any other formation than the current 3-4-3 (attack) or 5-4-1 (defense). Regarding the change of players' positions, Mr. Park has also done it. I wonder what other "tricks" he still has up his sleeve?

10am today, online football ticket sales open for Vietnam vs Philippines

At 10:00 a.m. today, November 28, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) will open the sale of 25,000 online football tickets for the Vietnam vs. Philippines match, AFF Cup 2018 semi-final. Here are instructions for buying football tickets online.

Register to buy tickets for the AFF Cup 2018 semi-final football match between Vietnam and the Philippines (taking place on December 6) at the following links:

http://vebongdaonline.vn/

www.vebongonline.com.vn

http://vebongda.vff.org.vn/

https://ticketonline.vff.org.vn/

Online ticket sales end date: 12:00, November 29, 2018 (Thursday) or until sold out, whichever comes first.

Notes when buying tickets

Each person can only buy once with ID card/Citizen ID card, the maximum number of tickets for 1 person/order is 4 tickets of the same value.

Tickets for the Vietnam - Philippines match have 4 prices: 200, 300, 400, and 500,000 VND.