Coach Kim Sang-sik: "Vietnam's fear of Thailand is just a thing of the past"

On the afternoon of January 1, 2025, the press conference before the first leg of the 2024 ASEAN Cup final took place. Coach Kim Sang-sik highly appreciated Thailand's leading position, but still believed that his students would overcome their opponents in the 2024 ASEAN Cup final.

The Korean strategist said in a press conference before the match: "Thailand is the most traditional team in the region, very strong, a high mountain that we need to conquer. But no mountain is insurmountable. My players and I will try our best to conquer that mountain and I believe we can do it."

The confrontations between Vietnam and Thailand are always considered "super classic" matches of Southeast Asian football. When talking about this, coach Kim Sang-sik said: "I know that, so tomorrow's match will definitely be a very difficult encounter.

However, we defeated Singapore in the semi-finals (a team led by a Japanese coach). On that basis, the Vietnamese team expects to have a good match against Thailand, a team also led by a Japanese coach."

Historical statistics show that the Vietnamese team is at a disadvantage compared to its opponent Thailand, however coach Kim Sang-sik is not too worried about these figures: "What is happening is what is important.

The spirit of the Vietnamese team is very good, higher than ever, and the players have clear goals to fight for. The players will try their best to win tomorrow."

"Thailand just had a long and tiring match against the Philippines in the second leg of the semi-final. After that, they had to travel to Vietnam. This affected the Thai players mentally and physically. And that also helped create confidence and good spirit for the Vietnamese team. We will try our best to show a strong match tomorrow," Mr. Kim added.

Answering the question about rotating positions, specifically the goalkeeper positions of Nguyen Filip and Dinh Trieu, coach Kim Sang-sik frankly shared: "There is one thing I want to reiterate that all 26 players are prepared for the tournament, from the first match to the final, I have adjusted the squad according to each opponent.

Thanks to the players, the whole team has reached the final match. In the goalkeeper position, these are two great goalkeepers. Nguyen Filip is very good, but this tournament we consider the advantage of communicating in Vietnamese. Dinh Trieu communicates better, I have discussed with goalkeeper coach Lee Won Jae to use which goalkeeper. Now the players have rested for tomorrow's match."

Attending the press conference before the first leg final with coach Kim Sang-sik was also defender Pham Xuan Manh, this player said that the whole team is practicing hard and getting ready for the upcoming final match. In addition, the player from Nghe An and his teammates are not interested in the past statistics between the two teams.

"In the past two days, I read a lot of information with such statements. I don't live in the past, I only focus on the present and look towards the future. We look towards the future from tomorrow's match. We should focus on ourselves, the team as a whole, trying our best to start the new year better. The coach told us, one is to win, two is to win, three is to win, so we will go out with that spirit to aim for victory," Xuan Manh said.

The first leg of the final between Vietnam and Thailand will take place at 8pm on January 2 at Viet Tri Stadium. Three days later, the two sides will compete in the return leg at Rajamangala Stadium (Thailand)./.