Coach Nguyen Huu Thang: 'Spirit helps Vietnamese players overcome physical difficulties'

(Baonghean.vn) - Compared to the victory over Myanmar, after the next match against Malaysia, Coach Nguyen Huu Thang expressed more satisfaction with his players' ability to focus on defense.

Before the match, when Dinh Dong, Van Toan and many other players were sick or had physical problems, Coach Huu Thang shared: “To overcome the physical problem when having to play under hot conditions, we need psychological therapy. You can see that when I first stepped onto the field, my players stood in a circle around each other. I told them to always talk about how they can overcome difficulties and physical strength. In the end, the players played with the spirit I wanted.”

Sharing about the quality of the match, Coach Nguyen Huu Thang said: "As expected, this was a very difficult match when Malaysia showed how difficult their playing style is. They actively defended and counter-attacked, using high crosses into the penalty area to take advantage of their physical advantage.

Coach Huu Thang is satisfied with the spirit and concentration of his students.

However, this style of play was within the coaching staff's expectations, and we have trained to counter it. We also had a bit of luck at the end of the match to preserve the score. But compared to the victory over Myanmar, I was more satisfied with the players' ability to concentrate on defending after scoring a goal."

Meanwhile, midfielder Nguyen Trong Hoang, who scored the only goal of the match in the 80th minute to help Vietnam win, shared: “First of all, we must thank the spectators who came to the stadium to watch and cheer us on. Their affection helped us overcome fatigue. As for me, I also felt a lot of pressure when I missed a great opportunity, but luckily the goal came to me.”

Trong Hoang (second from left) shined at the right time in a difficult match.

On the Malaysian side, coach Ong Kim Swee was not surprised to have to accept a defeat against the Vietnamese team. He said: “In general, this was a good match for the players, they just lacked a little focus. But as you can see, Vietnam was actually the better team. They were better than us in every aspect, every position and also had more scoring opportunities. In the second half, the Vietnamese players moved very widely, making it very difficult for us to keep up with them.”

Trung Kien(synthetic)