Cambodia team, each match has a different face

In the AFF Cup, Cambodia's achievements are only better than Brunei and East Timor, losing continuously makes the "Angkor Warriors" lose the necessary confidence. Japanese coach Keisuke Honda is the one who ignites the "warriors" and finally they have a 3-1 victory over the Laos team after losing to Malaysia (0-1) and Myanmar (1-4).

Goalkeeper's Achilles heel

It seems that coach Keisuke Honda did not have time to experiment with the squad and at this AFF Cup he decided to "play and assemble" the squad. Even the goalkeeper position, Um Vichet (22 years old) did not play well in the opening match against Malaysia. But when Keo Soksela (21 years old)into the match againstMyanmar also made 2 mistakes, so in the match against Laos, Um Vichet came on as the main goalkeeper and made another mistake. The goalkeeper is Cambodia's weak point at this AFF Cup.

Although Coach Honda boldly declared: "We will defeat the Vietnam team in the final match", he did not go to Hanoi with the team. Photo: Internet

Up to now, only 6 Cambodian players have been trusted in all 3 matches, in which the most stable is probably the defense line with the central defender duo Pheng Hong (25), Soeuy (5) and right-back Krya (4). If in the match against Malaysia, coach Keisuke Honda played with a 4-1-4-1 formation, in the match against host Myanmar they played with a 4-3-2-1 formation, but when they needed to win against Laos, the Japanese coach played with a 4-3-3 formation.

Regardless of the formation, star Chan Vathanaka (11) leads the attack, this number 11 often plays as a center forward or right winger. Interestingly, in the match against Laos, all three strikers Keo Sokpheng (9), Udom (7), and Vathanaka scored.

Except for Udom's penalty, the other two goals were all arranged and opportunistic by Cambodian players. Vathanaka's close-range header gave goalkeeper Saymanolinh Paseuth no chance to block. Keo Sokpheng increased the gap to 3-1 for Cambodia from a teammate's pass, he ran down and chipped the ball over the head of the Lao goalkeeper.

The only star

Chan Vathanaka (nicknamed CV11) was born in 1994 in a small town called Kampot in southeastern Cambodia. This town, which was famous for its salt and pepper production, is now known as the birthplace of one of Cambodia's most outstanding football prodigies.

Chan Vathanaka of the Cambodian national team. Photo: Internet

In 2012, starting his professional football career at Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng, Vathanaka moved to Boeung Ket Angkor - one of the top football teams in Cambodia. This was the launching pad for Vathanaka: he won the Young Player of the Year award in 2012, the Hun Sen Cup Top Scorer in 2013, the Best Player of the C-League National Football Championship in 2014...

In 2015, Vathanaka scored a total of 60 goals in all competitions, 37 of which were in the C-League - an achievement that earned him the Golden Boot. In the 2016 C-League season that just ended, this award returned to "CV11" when he scored 22 goals, especially a spectacular hat-trick scored in just 8 minutes in Boeung Ket Angkor's comeback win over Svay Rieng. "CV11" achieved all of the above achievements when he was only 22 years old... before moving to play for Pahang FA of Malaysia.

In 4 years of participating in the Cambodian national team, CV11 has played 47 matches, scoring 19 goals, including 2 goals at the AFF Cup 2018. In the 1-2 loss to the Vietnamese national team at home, Vathanaka scored a goal against goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung in the Asian qualifiers.

Big win to top the table

Final round of group stage Malaysia andMyanmar will fight for a ticket to the semi-finals, while the Vietnamese team will host the Cambodian team without an "Online" coach with the team.

If there is a "rain of goals" against Cambodia, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team will have a chance to top Group A. Surely players like Cong Phuong, Anh Duc, Van Duc will not miss a golden opportunity like this, even if Um Vichet or Keo Soksela is in goal.