Is Coach Park Hang Seo following in the footsteps of Coach Huu Thang?

Right-back problem

Two years ago, Coach Huu Thang also called up 30 players like Coach Park Hang Seo to prepare for the AFF Cup 2016. Before that important tournament, the Nghe An strategist also lost his number one right-back, Tran Dinh Hoang. This year, Coach Park Hang Seo is missing Vu Van Thanh and Pham Xuan Manh. Coincidentally, Dinh Hoang and Van Thanh both suffered serious knee injuries. At that tournament, Coach Huu Thang had Au Van Hoan and Tran Dinh Dong. However, the mistakes came from the goalkeeper and the right-back, an unwelcome position.

Training and friendship

Not stopping at those details, VFF and both strategists chose Korea as the training place before the AFF Cup. Their training time is similar and the location is still the National Football Center in Paju. Partly because Korea has cold air conditions, suitable for high-intensity training.

Coach Park's preparation for the AFF Cup is not much different from Coach Huu Thang's.

However, the worrying thing is the opponents that the Vietnam team will play against in friendly matches. In both training sessions, the Vietnam team had 3 practice matches with Korean teams, but the opponents were not really strong, and their level was not higher than the national team. In football, choosing strong opponents to play against, finding weaknesses and overcoming them is very important.

Peak performance

Coach Park Hang Seo is facing even more difficulties than Coach Huu Thang did two years ago, as the time to prepare for the tournament has become too tight. In total, Mr. Park only had 20 days to train the Vietnamese team before entering the opening match with Laos on November 8. Meanwhile, two years ago, that number for Coach Huu Thang was 45 days.

This V.League season is long, the players have gone through a year of intense competition. The core of the national team has been working hard for the past 10 months since the U23 Asian Cup. From physical strength, excitement or the feeling of craving for the ball/being bored with the ball to the peak of performance is also a problem.

Identify your competitors

The Indonesian press recently mentioned an issue, that is, the Vietnam national football team is almost only interested in its opponent Thailand. While in previous AFF Cups, Indonesia was the team that often stood in the way of Vietnam football.

Since mid-September, teams in the Southeast Asian region have been taking advantage of this time to conduct friendly matches to evaluate the quality of their squads before the AFF Cup. On November 25, Indonesia won a friendly match against Guyana 2-1, and this team has 3 more friendly matches from September 11 to October 15, winning Mauritius 1-0, winning Myanmar 3-0 and drawing Hong Kong 1-1.

Vietnam national football team is under pressure to win the AFF Cup 2018 after a successful year. Photo: VFF

While Thailand had an extremely high-quality match against China in June, 2 friendly matches against Hong Kong, Trinidad & Tobago (both won 1-0) and officially completed the preparation process on October 14. As for Coach Park Hang Seo and his team, they had 3 friendly matches against average teams in Korea, won 1 and lost 2, which was almost enough to purify the squad.

Other existing concerns come from the unstable performance of faces like Luong Xuan Truong, Nguyen Van Quyet, Do Hung Dung who have just returned from injury. Especially Xuan Truong, in Korea, the midfielder of HAGL had a rather lackluster performance when the AFF Cup was near.

At the national level, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand can all be real opponents for Coach Park Hang Seo and his team. Opportunities are shared equally among all, and the results of the upcoming tournament will truly reflect the level and class of Vietnamese football.

The preparation of the Vietnam national team is not the best, but hopefully when entering the official tournament, the steps of the players will still maintain their elegance. Hopefully, the above concerns will be filled by the difference coming from the real class of Coach Park Hang Seo, the players and the element of luck./.

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