What other "treasures" does coach Park Hang-seo have in hand?

After Huy Hung entered the field against the Philippines, the team only had two goalkeepers, Bui Tien Dung and Tuan Manh, and center back Luc Xuan Hung who had not yet played. Of the 20 players used, except for the defense and Anh Duc, whose positions were fixed, the remaining four positions were rotated. But why the arrangement was like that, except for coach Park Hang-seo and those involved, few people knew.

Both the army and the attack

Facing the optimistic statement of coach Sven-Goran Eriksson: "We still have 90 minutes on the away field, we will go there to change the situation. Football always has many surprises. We will fight because up to now, the Philippines has not been eliminated". Surely Mr. Park still has to calculate.

Mr. Park Hang-seo even used a unique trick, the "ugly victory" style against Malaysia to be present in the final match without revealing many unnecessary tricks.

Mr. Park Hang-seo is showing himself to be a talented "conductor". Photo: AFF

After the 2-1 first leg win, Mr. Park Hang-seo's task is much easier than his colleague. In our opinion, the Vietnamese team's lineup will not have many changes, if anything, Mr. Park needs to do a good job of psychological work for Quang Hai.

Obviously, in the match between the Philippines and Vietnam in the first leg of the AFF Cup 2018 semi-final, Quang Hai did not perform as well as usual. Accordingly, the striker from Hanoi had no less than 5 bad passes.

The bad Panaad pitch combined with the tight marking by the home team's players prevented Quang Hai from reaching his full potential. Center-back A. Silva, who used to play in La Liga and the Hanoi team, despite being 33 years old, was still able to easily predict Quang Hai's moves. When mentally stable, Quang Hai is still an important card for the Vietnam team, Xuan Truong will be a necessary card when we are unlucky to lose first.

Regarding personnel, except for Van Toan, Tien Linh, Van Quyet, Cong Phuong, Duc Chinh are also ready. In this match, the possibility of captain Van Quyet coming off the bench will also be higher, the next person will be Huy Hung because Duc Huy and Hung Dung will exert themselves in the confrontations with K.Ingreso and M.Ott.

At Panaad Stadium (Bacolod), the attack that took advantage of the space behind the two Philippine central defenders Carli De Murga and Alvaro Silva was successful. But it will certainly be difficult to use again, while Cong Phuong's solo play showed that the away team's defenders are not good at defending against such technical dribbles. In the hands of the Korean coach, besides Cong Phuong, Van Quyet and Quang Hai are good at this attack, this is a match that needs to be promoted.

Playing away, although the Philippines players played tough, committing many fouls, the referee did not blow the whistle. When returning to My Dinh Stadium, things will be different, exploiting set-piece fouls is a big issue that needs to be considered when goalkeeper Michael Falkesgaard shows uncertainty in goal.

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If in the first matches, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson did not make many changes, relying heavily on interim coach Scott Cooper and assistant Greatwich, then in the semi-final match with Vietnam, the Philippines team left a strong mark of the Swedish coach's guidance.

In the semi-final match at Panaad Stadium, instead of playing 4-4-2 as usual, the Philippines team played with a 4-5-1 formation, and at times Phil Younghusband even dropped deep to control the match.

The "German twins" (20 and 11) will continue to shine. Photo: AFF

The most important thing is to want to attack and score goals, but Mr. Eriksson does not have many satisfactory players. Of the 18 players, the three names Phil Younghusband, Patrick Reichelt, and Stephan Schrock are considered the best in the Philippines at the moment. Thus, Mr. Eriksson has no choice but to "rotate" rather than change players, most likely the away team will play 4-3-3 instead of 4-4-2 or 4-5-1.

Mr. Park Hang-seo is very talented, that is an undeniable fact. Facing Mr. Eriksson, who is the teacher of the world's top football stars, that was a story of previous years.

But when choosing the Philippines, a country where people are not interested in football, this coach will probably "retire" rather than compete on the football field. That makes us believe that there is no "Hanoi miracle", Mr. Park will win!