Coach Huu Thang gives the captain's armband to Cong Vinh

The coach of the Vietnamese national team hopes that his compatriots will "shoot" against Taiwan in the second qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup - Asia region.

* The match takes place at 7:00 p.m. today, March 24 at My Dinh Stadium.

The captain of the Taiwanese team said he will pay special attention to Cong Vinh, the player who played so well that they lost 1-2 in the first leg. Photo: Ngoc Dung

After the national team training session, Coach Huu Thang received many questions about who he would give the captain's armband to. The new captain of the Vietnam team said that the person wearing the armband has a very important role, must have a great influence on his teammates, be the one to inspire on the field, be the bridge between the coaching staff and the players... Therefore, he will carefully consider each candidate, let the whole team vote to choose.

However, up to now, there has been no meeting to vote for a captain. The Nghe An strategist will assign the captain's armband to Cong Vinh in the match against Taiwan (China). In the practice match against Quang Ninh, the striker born in 1985 was assigned the above role and he immediately scored a hat-trick, although at that time, Cong Vinh had only returned to the team for two days.

“The election is unnecessary. In the Vietnamese team right now, no one is more deserving of the captaincy than Cong Vinh,” a Vietnamese player told VnExpress.

Among the 23 members of the current Vietnamese team, Cong Vinh is the one with the longest seniority. He is also a hero with the header that scored against Thailand, helping the Vietnamese team win the AFF Cup 2008. In coach Huu Thang's squad, more than 30% are players who grew up at the Song Lam Nghe An training center, who always call Cong Vinh "brother" with great respect. Moreover, the striker from Nghe An is also very familiar with the role of being an extension of coach Huu Thang. Before joining Binh Duong, Huu Thang assigned him the important responsibility of being the captain of Song Lam Nghe An.

Coach Huu Thang is expected to create an attractive playing style for the Vietnam team. Photo: Ngoc Dung

Not only giving Cong Vinh the role of leader, Coach Huu Thang also places a lot of hope in this striker's scoring ability because the Vietnamese team is currently seriously lacking strikers.

The match against Taiwan (China) is the first official match of Coach Huu Thang. The mission of the strategist from Nghe An is not only to help his team win three points but also to play beautifully as he promised on the day he took office.

Immediately after signing the contract with VFF, Coach Huu Thang said he would choose a short and medium-range playing style, focusing on ball control. The new captain of the Vietnamese team said he likes Pep Guardiola and will try to make the team play similar to the style of play that the Spanish coach applied at Barca and Bayern Munich.

In recent training sessions, Coach Huu Thang always asked the players to practice small kicks and pass the ball with few touches. The new coach of the Vietnam national team said that his players have implemented 40-50% of his ideas. But when it comes to a real match, everything is very different from training or friendly matches, how the players perform is still a big question mark.

Group F, second qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup - Asia region.

Expected lineup:

Vietnam: Nguyen Manh, Dinh Dong, Ngoc Hai, Dinh Luat, Dinh Hoang, Van Thanh, Hoang Thinh, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong, Thanh Luong, Cong Vinh.

Taiwan: Yu Hung, Yen Tavio, Xavier Chen, Wang Ruei, Che Yuan, Chen Hao, Chang Lin, Chen Poliang, Hao Wen, Kai Hung, Che Yu.

According to VNE