Coach Park Hang-seo admits to being under pressure from fans

Responding to the media,Coach Park Hang-seoadmitted that he was under pressure to achieve good results against China to meet the expectations of Vietnamese fans. However, the 60-year-old strategist affirmed that he and his students know how to overcome the pressure to achieve good results.

"Tomorrow's match is extremely important for both teams. After losing the first two matches, both teams want to get points to keep their hopes alive in the upcoming journey. Vietnamese fans are eagerly waiting for the match with China, so I myself feel a bit of pressure. But as head coach, I can completely withstand this pressure.

Coach Park Hang-seo shared at the press conference before the match with China. Photo: Hai Hoang

As for the players, they also have to find ways to relieve the pressure before the match. The Vietnam team will try to implement their playing style against China. Our task is to counter their playing style in tomorrow's match."

Coach Park Hang-seo also said that the Vietnamese team needs to be vigilant about penalties. The Vietnamese team was penalized 5 times in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. That is a sad record compared to other teams in the third qualifying round. On the contrary, the Chinese team was awarded penalties 4 times in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. That is one of the important reasons that helped the Chinese team to be able to participate in the final qualifying round.

Obviously, the above statistics bring more insecurity to coach Park Hang-seo and his team. Because the Vietnamese team is constantly disadvantaged by referees, even the VFF has to make a recommendation to FIFA and AFC so that referees pay more attention to managing matches, avoiding causing disadvantages to the Vietnamese team.

Coach Park focuses more on tactical training. In the most recent training session of the Vietnam National Team, Coach Park Hang-seo began to reduce the training volume of the players and shifted to focusing on tactical training. The whole team had very careful video analysis sessions of the Chinese opponent to find out the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Coach Park Hang-seo assessed that China is not an easy opponent and the Vietnam National Team needs to be careful.

In this training session, the Vietnamese team will not have some important players in the defense line such as Van Hau and Trong Hoang. This has created anxiety for fans.

At the training session on October 5, player Thanh Chung shared: “The absence of Van Hau and Trong Hoang is a big loss for the team, but the coaching staff and the whole team have also had personnel plans to fill that void. I think whoever fills that position is very good, not inferior to the players who are unfortunately injured. We also try to play to achieve 100% strength and more to fill the void of the players who are unfortunately injured and have to rest.”

In response to information from some Chinese news sites, Coach Park denied that "bad" information. Today, some Chinese news sites quoted a statement said to be from Coach Park Hang-seo, affirming that the Chinese players were only physically fit enough to play for 30 minutes. However, Coach Park himself completely denied it:

"I have never said that, whether at an official or unofficial press conference. I think the Chinese press wrote that to stimulate their players. No matter how impolite it is, I cannot say that, especially since I am the head coach of the team that is about to play against China. Any newspaper that publishes that is not true."

Evaluating player Wu Lei and the naturalized stars of the Chinese team, coach Park said: "We know that China has quite a few naturalized players. In addition, they also have striker Wu Lei playing in La Liga. The Chinese national championship is very high quality, any player on the national team list has been proven in terms of ability.

The Vietnamese team has its own way of playing to counter the Chinese team. Photo: Hai Hoang

Meanwhile, Duy Manh believes that the Vietnamese team has found a way to counter the naturalized Chinese star. Talking about the match with China, center back Duy Manh revealed that the Vietnamese players have prepared carefully and are very excited to take the field: "Tomorrow's match will be extremely exciting. The two teams have prepared carefully for this match and as players, we need to try to complete the tasks assigned by the coaching staff. Because both teams lost in the first two matches, both Vietnam and China want to get points. We have trained hard and are very excited for this match.

Players and head coach of the Chinese national team. Photo: Hai Hoang

Besides, the player of Hanoi affirmed that Vietnam National Team will have a way to counter the naturalized players of China: "Both teams have studied each other carefully. China is a strong team and has many naturalized players, but Vietnam National Team also has its own way of playing to counter them."