Coach Park Hang Seo “dissects” Bahrain Olympic team before the confrontation

Vietnam Olympic Team has determined their opponent in the round of 16 to be Bahrain. Coach Park Hang Seo has made his own assessment of this representative from West Asia. "We only found out our opponent in the round of 16 last night. I watched Bahrain's match with Kyrgyzstan. Tomorrow afternoon, the whole team will watch their two remaining matches.

They are a strong attacking team and play aggressively. They also counterattack very well with some skilled players. No team is perfect and we are still analyzing them," Coach Park Hang Seo shared.

Vietnam Olympic team won against Japan for the first time in an official tournament. Photo: Trung Thu.

Bahrain Olympic team brought to Indonesia this time with a squad mainly of players born in 1997. Among them are many names that were defeated by U19 Vietnam in the 2017 AFC U19 Championship, the tournament in which Quang Hai, Ha Duc Chinh, Bui Tien Dung, Dinh Trong and Doan Van Hau participated and defeated their opponents.

Mr. Park said: "That is a story of the past. In this tournament, they brought back players born in 1997, but it cannot be said that they are young. The difference lies in their playing experience."

Talking about the upcoming match, Coach Park Hang Seo shared: "We played quite well in the three group stage matches but no team is perfect. Each player is very important. The problem is that I need to have players with enough physical strength to build a style of play. We are still analyzing the Bahrain Olympics and the next match will probably have changes."

The Korean captain also had a "strong" argument against the opinions of experts that the Vietnamese Olympic team does not need to play at full strength against the Japanese Olympic team. "I would like to clarify the issue that some experts think that Vietnam does not need to play at full strength against Japan. They are third parties and can make their own judgments.

Bahrain Olympics brings to Indonesia with players aged 21 and under. Photo: AFC.

But for me, after we played against Pakistan and Nepal and got enough points to enter the knockout round, I also pay close attention to the match against Japan. Because in Group E, Malaysia is definitely at the top of the table, but if we are at the top, the next opponent is still unknown.

They criticize that playing with all your might is a waste of energy, but for me, every match requires a lot of energy. After the match with Japan, we had 3 days off, enough time to recover, so there was no problem with our physical strength. We have never won against Japan before, so winning against them will erase this curse. And we have done it," said Mr. Park.