Coach Park Hang-seo evaluates opponents at Asian Cup 2019; Former Long An coach becomes Indonesia coach

Quang Hai in Top 5 nominations for Fair Play Award 2018

The Organizing Committee of the Fair Play Award 2018 and the Evaluation Council have reached an agreement and selected 5 official nominations that meet the criteria, and have spiritual value and influence on Vietnamese football and society, including:

U23 Vietnam players celebrate Quang Hai's goal in the final match. Photo: Internet

Vietnam U-23 players cleared the snow to help midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai score a "snow rainbow" goal against Uzbekistan in the final match of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.

Four players Bui Tien Dung, Doan Van Hau, Ha Duc Chinh, Nguyen Quang Hai participated in the program Saturday Wish, making the little dream of Tom who had brain cancer since he was 33 months old come true; Defender Do Duy Manh planted the national flag on the "snow peak" of Changzhou Stadium (China) after the final match of the U23 Asian Cup.

The Vietnamese team celebrated the goal in the Vietnam - Cambodia match at the AFF Cup 2018 with the number 9 shirt of Nguyen Van Toan to share the pain of his teammate who unfortunately was injured and could not play; Striker Nguyen Anh Duc stopped over-excited spectators in the stands from throwing bottles and strange objects onto the field in protest at the referee ignoring the foul on Cong Phuong in the group stage match between Vietnam and Malaysia.

The tournament organizers also agreed to commend Que Ngoc Hai for intervening to “rescue” an overzealous fan and help him return to the stands after the fan “jumped over the fence” to celebrate and ran onto the field and was arrested by security forces.

The jury also unanimously agreed to award the special title of FAIR PLAY HONORING to Coach Park Hang-seo. The Fair Play Award Ceremony 2018 will be held in Ho Chi Minh City after the vote count.

Vietnam National Team maintains 100th place in the world

The Vietnamese national team, with the 2018 AFF Cup championship, has officially entered the world's top 100 despite not receiving many points in this tournament, for an unexpected reason.

Specifically, in December, the Vietnam team was awarded additional points from 4 matches, including 3 wins and 1 draw in the AFF Cup 2018. However, the opponents that the Vietnam team defeated, Malaysia and the Philippines, are ranked much lower than Vietnam, so the number of points we were awarded was not much, only 5 points.

In total, at the end of 2018, the Vietnam National Team won 1,229 points, ranked 100th on the FIFA rankings, ranked 17th in Asia, and led the Southeast Asian region.

Coach Park Hang Seo reveals his decision to eliminate Anh Duc and Van Quyet

In a television interview on the evening of December 20, regarding the decision to exclude Anh Duc and Van Quyet from the list of Vietnam's team participating in the 2019 Asian Cup, coach Park explained: "Before the 2018 AFF Cup, he said he wanted to consider this the last tournament of his career and I respect that.

Coach Park Hang-seo at the press conference before the second leg of the final. Photo: Trung Kien

As for Van Quyet, he is a lovable player who has played well in the V-League for both Hanoi FC and the Vietnam national team. But in this Asian tournament, I want to give opportunities to young players."

Evaluating the opponents at the 2019 Asian Cup, Coach Park Hang Seo also expressed his concern: "The Vietnamese team is in the most difficult group D at the Asian Cup, Iraq, Iran, Yemen are all very strong and the Vietnamese team is considered the weakest. But we will try our best to achieve good results at the Asian playground.

The 2010 AFF Cup final showed signs of "match-fixing"

Recently, in a talk show on Trans7 channel, former head of the Indonesian football delegation, Andi Darussalam Tabusalla (ADT), suddenly spoke out about the possibility of "match-fixing" by the players in this match.

On television, the man said: “A year after this match, I met some Malaysian friends again. I asked them why they were able to beat us in that match. At that time, they replied that if they did not use tricks, they could not have won.”

“Until now, I still remember clearly the suspicious moments in that match. In the first minute, Maman Abdurrahman (Indonesia national team defender) deliberately let the ball slip through, allowing the opponent player to make a pass and Malaysia scored a goal.”

“The same thing happened with Safee Sali’s second goal. The defense stood still and let the opponent score easily. Those are the situations I can’t forget when I couldn’t bring the championship to the Indonesian people.”

“I know who was in and out of the hotel before the game, but I can’t provide that at the moment. There’s no solid evidence of match-fixing, but if you look at what happened on the pitch, you can definitely raise doubts.”

Also in his sharing, this official affirmed that he will cooperate with security agencies in case of re-investigating this "smelly" match of the Indonesian team.

Tottenham confirms Son Heung Min returns to Korea for Asian Cup

Son Heung Min has just been called up by the Korean national team to attend the 2019 Asian Cup, which will take place from January 5 to February 1, 2019. Before the announcement of the Korean national team's call-up, Tottenham decided to "release" their attacking star to the national team. Specifically, Tottenham will let Son Heung Min return to wear the national team shirt from the third match of the group stage against China. Thus, the 26-year-old striker will be absent from the first two matches against the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to Son Heung Min, the Korean team also has the service of another player playing in the Premier League, midfielder Ki Sung Yueng of Newcastle.

Former Long An coach appointed as Indonesia coach

After being eliminated early from the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018, Indonesia has decided to say goodbye to interim coach Bima Sakti. On the afternoon of December 20, the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) held a meeting at the Sulta Hotel to announce the identity of the new "captain" for the national team.

Accordingly, coach Simon McMenemy was chosen as the head coach of the archipelago team. This young Scottish coach is not a strange name to Vietnamese fans. At the AFF Cup 2010, under the leadership of McMenemy, the Philippines team defeated coach Calisto's Vietnam team with a score of 2-0 right at My Dinh Stadium in the group stage.

After that, he also briefly moved to lead Dong Tam Long An Club in 2011 before wandering through a series of other clubs in Asia.