What makes U23 Vietnam not have a goal?

This comes from the Korean coach's football philosophy, ensuring not to lose before thinking about winning. Meanwhile, the regulations of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship focus on head-to-head results first, if the three teams Jordan, UAE, and Vietnam have the same score. So even if Vietnam wins big against U23 North Korea, if Jordan and UAE draw, we will have to leave Thailand.

Not enough attack pressure

First of all, it must be affirmed that both U23 UAE and U23 Jordan are much stronger than other Southeast Asian teams. The fact that U22 Vietnam scored 24 goals after 7 matches at SEA Games 30 does not guarantee that they will score in Thailand. Seeing Duc Chinh - the top scorer at SEA Games 30 with a scoring efficiency of 1.1 goals/match struggling against the defense of U23 UAE and U23 Jordan is the clearest proof.

After 2 matches, we had 31 shots, 4 on target and no goals scored. The biggest pressure after 180 minutes of 2 matches was the situation where we had 4 consecutive corner kicks in the last 5 minutes of the match against U23 Jordan.

Quang Hai was always locked down, U23 Vietnam had no players to organize attacks. Photo AFC.

Obviously, after Trong Hoang, Van Hau, and Hung Dung left the team, the replacement players could not replace them. The two wings Thanh Tinh, Viet Anh, Thanh Tinh, and Tan Tai simply played as full-backs in a 4-back formation. The type of wing-backs who can play both offensive and defensive positions like Trong Hoang and Van Hau currently do not appear in the U23 Vietnam squad.

So even if we only had 35% possession (against U23 UAE) or 62% (against U23 Jordan), our number of attacking players was always less than our opponent's. It was very rare for the number of U23 Vietnam attacking players to be equal to the opponent's, so throughout a match there were rarely any attacking arrangements that caused confusion for the opponent.

Both U23 UAE and U23 Jordan coaches have plans to closely mark conductor Quang Hai, while Hoang Duc is not strong enough to handle the expected workload, causing the U23 Vietnam midfield to almost not be able to launch an attack.

The midfield was tightly marked.

In both matches, Mr. Park has turned all the cards in his hand. When he was stuck, in the match against U23 UAE, he took Duc Chien out and used the central midfielder pair Quang Hai and Hoang Duc. In the match against U23 Jordan, he let Thanh Son rest and brought Hoang Duc from the winger to play central midfielder with Duc Chien.

But all 3 options were not successful, because the ability to handle the ball in a narrow space of the central midfielders was not up to standard. When 2-3 opponents attacked, the midfielders did not have enough skills to cover the ball like their senior Tuan Anh on the national team, so they all chose to stretch out. Up front, Tien Linh did not have enough strength to press the opponent's defenders, so he was starved for the ball.

In the match against U23 Jordan, we had 502 passes, with 79% accuracy, surpassing the opponent's 302 passes, with an accuracy rate of only 69%, but we still had fewer opportunities than the opponent.

Even though Vietnam won big against U23 North Korea, the draw between Jordan and UAE still forced us to leave Thailand. Photo: AFC

With a moderate attack tempo and not many breakthroughs, scoring a goal against West Asian teams has never been easy. Mr. Park has used almost all the strategic cards in his hand but the goal has not come yet. That is also what the Korean coach had predicted but still had to wait for his students to mature over time.

When leaving the area, the first thing we have to learn is patience. Even the Japanese, who have spent 3-4 years preparing, still have to pack their bags and leave early.