Ho Chi Minh City Club in the "tough" era

It is not known whether Ho Chi Minh City FC will complete its goal at the end of the season, but the image of the Thong Nhat Stadium team is falling quite a lot after malicious tackles by players, making fans feel worried for this team.

Up to now, Ho Chi Minh City FC has received 19 yellow cards and 1 red card, of which they have received 16 yellow cards in the 2018 V-League, the highest number among the teams. We know that the Japanese coach always emphasizes strong playing style, true to the samurai spirit. But in our opinion, his students are showing unnecessarily malicious and tough playing style; as a player who respected the opponent and played fair-play football, surely coach Cong Vinh did not teach his players to play like that (?!!).

Records

Dinh Luat is at risk of being suspended. Photo: Internet

Of the 19 yellow cards and 1 red card given by the referees to Ho Chi Minh City FC, only 1 yellow card was due to goalkeeper Thanh Diep's time-wasting, the rest were due to rough tackles. Not to mention that many coaches also think that the referee is being lenient with Miura's team.

Through the first 4 matches of V-League 2018, 4 players received 3 yellow cards, forced to rest from round 5, while Ho Chi Minh City Club had 2. They were Sam Ngoc Duc and Nguyen Hai Anh, who is originally a striker. Perhaps long-time V-League followers are not too surprised to see Tan Tai (B.Binh Duong) or Phan Thanh Hung (Quang Nam) receive 3 yellow cards, because these are players playing in the central midfielder position, small in stature so they use many tricks in the game. But the fact that Ngoc Duc and Hai Anh "suddenly played tough" surprised many people, did the Japanese coach blow a new "football philosophy" into them?

In addition to Sam Ngoc Duc with 5 yellow cards (1 red card) being the "ugliest" player on the Vietnamese football field up to now, the Ho Chi Minh City football team also holds the record of 6 yellow cards for 1 match. The match of round 4 of V-League 2018 at Thong Nhat Stadium between Ho Chi Minh City Club and S. Khanh Hoa is a true "martial arts performance on the football field".

After unexpectedly opening the scoring from the penalty spot, Dinh Luat and his teammates tried their best to protect the fragile 1-0 score. Referee Tran Dinh Thinh used 6 yellow cards, but after the match, coach Vo Dinh Tan of S.Khanh Hoa also said that the king of the field missed a few situations that should have received a red card. Attacking players like Quang Nam and Hai Anh still tackled fiercely right from the opponent's side.

In fact, Ho Chi Minh City FC advocates playing tough, so they have also suffered many unfortunate injuries. If Phi Son simply had a bad landing, Ngoc Thinh and Van Thuan have recently been injured due to strong collisions with opponents.

Additional penalty

When he was playing for Hanoi FC, Sam Ngoc Duc was disciplined for 8 matches and fined 30 million VND after kicking Hai Phong's Anh Hung with both feet, but this player did not learn from his experience. Photo: Internet

Recently, VPF has sent the files on 2 dangerous tackles by Dinh Luat and Sam Ngoc Duc (SLNA vs. Ho Chi Minh City Club, Round of 16 of the National Cup) to the VFF Disciplinary Board. In fact, not only Ngoc Duc but Au Van Hoan also had a tackle that took down Van Duc's junior right at the beginning of the match. The image of Ngoc Duc calmly leaving the field after the malicious tackle shows that these 2 Nghe An players did not seem to accidentally choose Van Duc as the "destination" for their kicks.

If the 35-year-old veteran Dinh Luat had an excessive tackle in terms of position, timing (minute 90+2) and situation (losing 0-2) with Olaha, which is 1 blameworthy, then the subsequent explanations are 10 blameworthy. Most likely, these two pillars of the Ho Chi Minh City Club will be severely punished by the VFF because if they do not deter these offensive actions, the audience will boycott. Not to mention, if they do not protect young players like Van Duc, Cong Phuong, Xuan Truong from being injured by malicious tackles, the U23 Vietnam team will face difficulties.

No one likes the “SLNA version of Cong Vinh” with its current violent style of play. Names like Sam Ngoc Duc and Dinh Luat need to be condemned. The situation of “the boss builds, the players destroy” has made the brand of Ho Chi Minh City Club ugly. I wonder what Coach Miura and the players will think after this event?