Thanh Nghe Derby: Hard work meets strong opponents

Concerns about the attack

Failureat Hang Day StadiumNot only did they let Hanoi Club leave them far behind on the rankings, but they also caused the Nghe An team to lose troops in the next rounds. Olaha's red card brought a headache to young coach Huy Hoang. Since the beginning of the season, Song Lam Nghe An's attack seems to revolve around only 3 names: Olaha, Phan Van Duc and Oseni. They are also the ones who contributed to 7/13 goals of the Nghe An team. With an important link in the attack broken, how will Song Lam Nghe An's attack operate in the upcoming matches?

Olaha's red card at Hang Day Stadium caused Song Lam Nghe An to lose an important link. Photo: Hai Hoang

Compared to the other two partners in the attack, Olaha plays an extremely important role. With good physical strength and good personal skills, Olaha has a wide range of activities in the attack. From moving to the wings to create opportunities for teammates to penetrating the center to participate in group coordination or finish off opponents and actively participating in defense when the home team does not have the ball. The problem of replacing Olaha is a difficult problem for the coaching staff of the Nghe An team.

"Concrete helmet" is getting harder and harder

Since playing in V.League, Thanh Hoa football has introduced to Vietnamese football a "specialty" which is the pith helmet. The image of Thanh Hoa fans wearing pith helmets to the stadium to cheer for their team has left a strong impression on fans across the country.

A situation in the match between Song Lam Nghe An and Dong A Thanh Hoa in the Four-Hero Football Tournament for the Tan Long Cup 2022. Photo: Chung Nguyen

In the stands this season, coach Petrovic is building forEast Asia Thanh Hoaa rather annoying defensive counter-attacking style. They have a fairly solid defense when they have only conceded 7 goals after 9 matches. That defense was further reinforced when the Thanh team's coaching staff decided to add center-back Gustavo Santos to replace striker Paulo Henrique, even though this striker had scored 2 goals. Obviously, the goal of Dong A Thanh Hoa Club is to build a team based on a solid defense. And it was that defense that just neutralized Viettel's excellent strikers in the 1-0 victory in round 10 of the V.League. In addition, with Le Quoc Phuong's free-kick ability combined with the height of over 1m90 of the foreign center-back duo, set pieces will be a formidable attacking option for the Thanh team. Just needing to score the first goal will clearly make it more difficult for the opponent to penetrate the multi-layered defense of Dong A Thanh Hoa. At that time, the counter-attack trap was set for Paulo Pinto and Nguyen Trong Hung to demonstrate their speed and quality.

Waiting for coach Huy Hoang's resourcefulness

Meeting Dong A Thanh Hoa at this time is really a tough challenge.Coach Huy HoangAt the same time, this young coach had to solve two problems: finding a replacement for Olaha and "piercing" the solid defense of the Thanh team.

The problem for the captain of Song Lam Nghe An in the upcoming match against Dong A Thanh Hoa is not easy. Photo: Chung Nguyen

The Thanh team's defense is quite tight but not without weaknesses, which is the slow maneuverability of the foreign central defender duo. If using the underarm passes and low crosses, it is completely possible to create breakthroughs that can destroy the solid defense of Dong A Thanh Hoa. Hoang Anh Gia Lai's victory over Dong A Thanh Hoa is the clearest proof of the fatal weakness of the tall foreign central defender duo, striker Van Toan alone fought left and right, causing the defense of the Thanh team to crumble. With Phan Van Duc and Oseni, Song Lam Nghe An can still do the same thing as Hoang Anh Gia Lai did.

With a record of 4 consecutive wins at home, while the Thanh team has never tasted victory away from home (1 draw, 3 losses), hopefully the advantage of Vinh Stadium will once again help Lam sweep away the tough "conical hats"./.