Phan Van Duc's mark in Vietnam's victory

Due to various reasons from the host country's organizing committee, Vietnam Olympic team had almost no official training sessions, while Jose Antonio Nogueira and his team had two full training sessions in Indonesia. However, that did not cause difficulties for Coach Park Hang Seo and his team at Wibawa Mukti Stadium, Cikarang.

Overwhelm the opponent

Coach Park Hang Seo even arranged 7 players with an attacking tendency, the midfield of the Vietnamese team did not have a single player who played a true defensive role. The central midfielder duo Xuan Truong and Van Quyet are both good at holding the ball and organizing attacks, the two wings are national team players Van Hau and Van Thanh. In the 3-4-3 formation that tends to attack, Quang Hai and Cong Phuong play as wingers, and "veteran" Anh Duc plays as a center forward.

As the coaching staff and coach Park Hang Seo commented, the two strikers Maqbool and Ahmad Yousaf were often "hungry for the ball" because Pakistan's 4-man midfield was divided by the Vietnamese midfielders.

Cong Phuong missed two penalty kicks. Photo: Internet

The red team completely controlled the game, it was only a matter of time before Cong Phuong and his teammates broke through the defense of U23 Pakistan. Although tall but slow to move, the central defenders Ali Mohsin and Hassan Mehdi let Cong Phuong and Quang Hai have a beautiful pass before Quang Hai finished "threading the needle" of the Pakistani goalkeeper, opening the score for U23 Vietnam.

Captain Van Quyet proved to the fans that Coach Park Hang Seo's choice was correct when he skillfully handled the technique before launching a beautiful shot from outside the penalty area, raising the score to 2-0 for U23 Vietnam.

In addition, throughout the match, this number 10 played a good role as a leader, regulating the match, and being present at the hot spots. Van Quyet was the first one to comfort his junior Cong Phuong when he missed the second penalty kick.

Cong Phuong left a strong impression when he missed two penalty kicks in the two halves of the match. At the end of the first half, this number 9 kicked hard and hit the crossbar, but in the second half, when he volunteered to kick the 11m penalty that he earned from a foul by defender O.Pakistana, he kicked too softly for goalkeeper Saqib Hanif to save.

Van Duc shines

Van Duc had many effective dribbles for his teammates to score. Photo: Internet

Of the three substitutions, Hung Dung replaced Xuan Truong, Van Duc replaced Anh Duc and Duc Chinh replaced Cong Phuong, Van Duc left the most impression. Playing on the right wing, Van Duc had a smart pass for Cong Phuong to score, raising the score to 3-0.

If Hung Dung had taken advantage of Van Duc's pass and handled the situation well in a face-to-face situation with goalkeeper Saqib Hanif, the score would have been raised to 4-0. At the end of the match, surrounded by 4-5 Pakistani players, Van Duc had a solo run before shooting over the bar with his left foot.

Pakistan Olympic is considered the weakest team in the group and Vietnam has won by a large margin. The players have implemented the right tactics, proactively attacking from the start by controlling the midfield well, organizing a fast and compact style of play. With 3 points in hand, the Vietnamese players will have more confidence to continue competing with the remaining opponents. With an impressive 30 minutes of performance at the end of the match, experts believe that Van Duc should have entered the field earlier, even been named in the starting lineup.

Starting lineup:

U23 Vietnam:Bui Tien Dung, Dinh Trong, Tien Dung, Duy Manh, Van Thanh, Van Hau, Xuan Truong, Van Quyet, Quang Hai, Cong Phuong, Anh Duc.

Pakistan U23: Saqib Hanif, Hayat Umar, Ali Mohsin, Hassan Mehdi, Riaz Muhammad, Younas Shabaz, Ishaque Abideen, Hussain Saddam, Arslan Ali, Maqbool, Ahmad Yousaf.

3-0. Goals:U23 Vietnam: Quang Hai (21'), Van Quyet (42'), Cong Phuong (73')