Vietnam team focuses on big battle

Moreover, theVietnam teamCompletely deadlocked in the first half against an opponent weaker in every aspect and only exploded in the second half after a substitution, as well as Dinh Trieu's serious mistake leading to Duy Manh's even more serious mistake, causing the opening match, despite achieving a maximum of 3 points, to still have significant flaws that could have negative impacts later on.

First of all, in terms of starting lineup, Mr. Kim Sang-sik did not put Nguyen Philip but chose Dinh Trieu to start for the first time for the Vietnam National Team, thanks to maintaining high performance in the last few V-League seasons. The two full-backs were assigned to Van Khang (left) and Tien Anh (right) as well as Ngoc Tan was assigned the official position of holding midfielder to play with Hoang Duc for the first time.

Some people believe that the formation that Mr. Kim tested in this match was 3-5-2, but in reality, the Vietnam team played 3-4-3, with 3 strikers including Vi Hao - Tien Linh and Hai Long. Through that, it can be seen that, facing a not-so-superior opponent, Mr. Kim boldly arranged the squad including experienced players such as Tien Dung, Duy Manh, Hoang Duc, Tien Linh... but at the same time trusted in a series of new and ambitious factors such as Ngoc Tan, Hai Long, Van Khang, Vy Hao...

Of course, the opening match of any tournament is always difficult, especially when playing away against a determined opponent. This partly explains why the Vietnamese team, despite many times bringing the ball down the wing and crossing, could not overcome the tight defense of the home team.

It is worth mentioning that in that match, the fact that Tien Anh and Hoang Duc passed the ball to the opponent and lost the ball in the middle of the field proved that the impatience and haste were inappropriate and unnecessary in a match that was not too difficult and needed to be stopped immediately, if one did not want to be punished when facing opponents of equal or better ability.

And as mentioned above, towards the end of the match, when everything was basically settled, Dinh Trieu in a simple situation proved his "first time starting" inexperience, with a disastrous kick that seemed to put the ball at the opponent's feet in front of the goal.

Then immediately Duy Manh "repeated the old story" by playing rough as usual, receiving a red card and a penalty for his team. Among the central defenders chosen this time, Duy Manh is the one who has just returned from injury, not yet reaching his peak form in V-League, which is really a question mark in the eyes of many experts? Hopefully, Mr. Kim Sang-sik did not choose the wrong personnel and the recent mistake will make Duy Manh learn a serious lesson to play more maturely, effectively and safely in the future.

Throughout the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, Hai Long did not play as expected and was about to be substituted when the chance to prove himself came, when this player received a gift from a long pass from his senior Tien Dung to run into a great position, handle the ball with his left foot superbly, opening the score for the Vietnam team.

Losing morale from here, the home players continuously lost the ball dangerously and the Vietnamese team's goal seemed to be programmed thanks to Tuan Hai stealing the ball and passing it to Tien Linh to score the second goal, Quang Hai passing it to Van Toan to score the third goal, the ball bounced off the opponent's defender in a corner kick for Van Vy to run from the second line to score the fourth goal.

All of the players who were put on the field from the second half such as Tuan Hai, Quang Hai, Van Vy contributed from the pass to the goal, proving the Korean coach's cool hand in substitutions, his sharp "reading" of the opponent and his talent in using troops. This also proved that the opponent only tried to play well in 1 half and after fully probing every aspect, Mr. Kim Sang-sik used his tactics to achieve the goal quickly and accurately.

The upcoming match with the Indonesian team will be really difficult and requires the Vietnamese team to avoid making any unnecessary mistakes like in the match against the Lao team mentioned above.

The starting lineup is certainly not the default names, for example, Dinh Trieu will most likely be replaced by Nguyen Fillip while Duy Manh's position needs to be carefully considered or Van Khang, Vy Hao or Hai Long will not play from the start when names like Van Thanh, Van Vy, Quang Hai... will be given great responsibilities after most of the starting lineup has been warmed up and familiarized from the first match. That key match means that the Vietnam team will concentrate all its efforts to enter the field with the strongest lineup and the most reasonable tactics after witnessing the opponents' performance in the two matches against Myanmar and Laos.

Hopefully, if the start is good, the end will be good for Mr. Kim and his team, especially solving the difficult problem of Indonesia with the throw-in weapon and scoring in the second match on December 15 at Viet Tri Stadium.