Vietnam team 'half happy, half worried'

Up to now, there are only 8 teams that have not lost, in which Japan and Korea have shown their absolute strength by winning 12 points (2 teams rested in round 5), without conceding a goal. The number of points earned by the Vietnamese team is even higher than Bahrain (9 points) and Saudi Arabia (8 points).

Solid defense

The Vietnamese national team's defense is in the top 6 of Asian teams. In addition to Japan and Korea keeping a clean sheet, Vietnam, Australia, Bahrain, and Qatar have only conceded 1 goal. An achievement that none of us dared to think of before the 2020 World Cup Asian qualifiers.

The Thai team had many phases of dominating the Vietnamese team's goal. Photo: Trung Kien

Winning 3 matches and drawing 2 matches in Group G of the 2nd qualifying round of the 2020 World Cup in Asia with the presence of UAE and Thailand is considered a success. The tight defense under the direction of captain Que Ngoc Hai is the fulcrum for us to win 11 points.

Concerns about the attack

Among the teams temporarily occupying the top two positions of the eight groups, Vietnam and Bahrain have a relatively modest number of goals scored. Bahrain has only scored 3 goals after 5 matches (2 wins, 3 draws), Saudi Arabia has only scored 4 goals but has only played 4 matches, while Vietnam (3 wins, 2 draws) has 5 goals.

With the situation in Group C, it seems like it's only a matter of time before Iran overcome Bahrain, even though they haven't lost a match yet.

What many Vietnamese fans are worried about is that Coach Park Hang-seo and his team's attack is quite poor in attacking ideas. The player who scored the most goals for the red team was Tien Linh, 1 goal from Trong Hoang unexpectedly stealing the ball from an Indonesian defender, assisting for number 22 to score, the other goal was a moment of brilliance and a bit of luck from a long-range shot into the UAE net.

The team's other goal scorers in the qualifying round were Quang Hai (miraculous shot against Malaysia); Duy Manh (header from a corner kick), Ngoc Hai (penalty kick).

Van Lam and the defense are the mainstay of the team. Photo VF.

In the 2 matches against UAE and Thailand, we only had 1 shot on target against UAE and 2 shots on target against Thailand but the referee did not recognize them. Even though we had more players, we did not have any decent shots during the entire 2nd half.

Need a new beater

In the match against Thailand at home, while the away team had 8 shots on goalie Van Lam, the home players only stopped at the level of opportunities. All 3 substitutions of Mr. Park were for the attack, but Hong Duy, Cong Phuong and Anh Duc did not leave their mark. It cannot be said that Mr. Park only advocated defense, the main thing is that his students did not have many creative ideas in attack.

After Anh Duc's departure, the team needs new faces and new ways of playing. Photo: VF.

A strong defense is the pride of Mr. Park and the Vietnamese team. But to go far, we need to score more goals, otherwise we will face many difficulties if we are unlucky enough to concede first. After Anh Duc's departure, the team needs new faces and new ways of playing.