How strong is Nepal's Olympic opponent?

Among the 20 players of the South Asian representative, there is a notable face: midfielder Rohit Chand, one of three players over 23 years old added to this team.

Rohit Chand is no stranger to Southeast Asian football as he is the vice-captain and foreign player of Persija Jakarta. Rohit Chand is a versatile player, he can play any position in midfield as well as two full-back positions. Obviously, this player is predicted to be the "trump card" of Olympic Nepal at this year's Asiad. In the opening match, Rohit Chand was also put on the field from the start.

Rohit Chand (next to the goalkeeper) is the leader of the Nepal Olympic team at the 2018 Asiad. Photo: File

In the opening match of Group D of the 18th Asian Games, Olympic Nepal proactively chose a defensive style of play when facing a very strong team, Olympic Japan. Although they conceded an early goal in the 7th minute, with the goal of limiting the loss, coach Yotoku Koji's team still played defensively, not attacking to find an equalizer.

Statistics show that Nepal only controlled the ball 37% in the opening match, had 1/1 shot on target and did not have any corner kicks. Meanwhile, Olympic Vietnam showed optimism against a weaker opponent. That is the ball control rate of 59%, 19/29 shots on target.

Commenting on his opponent Nepal, coach Park Hang Seo said: “Nepal has some advantages. They don’t have a good physique but their physical strength and endurance are quite good. Individually, they have some players over 23 years old who play well. Yesterday, they probably studied Japan very carefully, so they must have studied us as well. I think we will have to calculate carefully.”

Vietnam Olympic team aims for another victory at ASIAD 2018 when facing Nepal Olympic team which is rated lower. Photo: Nguyen Khanh

On the FIFA rankings, Nepal Football is only ranked 161st while Vietnam is ranked 102nd. However, Vietnam Olympic cannot be complacent. In 2016, U23 Nepal had an excellent victory over U23 India 2-1 in the Final to win the South Asian championship. This time, that generation of players did not participate in the Asiad, but it also showed that the opponent of Vietnam Olympic is really a problem without many solutions.

Regarding the squad, after conducting a check-up, the doctors of the Vietnam Olympic team announced the good news that midfielder Luong Xuan Truong only suffered a minor injury due to the collision and is in good health. In the upcoming match against Olympic Nepal, Xuan Truong can completely play from the start.

Not only Vietnam, Japan, Iran and Myanmar were also provided with substandard training grounds by host Indonesia. The Organizing Committee arranged for Myanmar to practice at a training ground 60 km from the hotel. Recently, Indonesia issued a notice prohibiting Vietnamese media from reporting on the training ground of the Vietnam Olympic team that was not arranged by the Organizing Committee. The reason is that the host country is afraid that leaked images will negatively affect the image of this country.

Clip: Phan Van Duc's performance in the victory over Pakistan

(Baonghean.vn) - Coming on in the 63rd minute to replace "veteran" Anh Duc, although he did not score, midfielder Phan Van Duc still left a big impression with a pass to set up Cong Phuong to score, raising the score to 3-0.