Drawing with U20 New Zealand, U20 Vietnam makes history in Southeast Asian football

(Baonghean.vn) - The U20 Vietnam players, participating in the youth football festival for the first time, entered the match confidently and played fairly with their opponent, U20 New Zealand, who had participated in the World Cup 5 times.

Before the match between the two teams began, U-20 France had a 3-0 victory over U-20 Honduras. This shows that, as expected, U-20 France is the strongest team in this group and the first ticket to the knockout round is difficult to escape from their hands. Therefore, both U-20 Vietnam and U-20 New Zealand see each other as the main opponents because the two teams are considered the weakest in the group. U-20 New Zealand is considered much stronger because of their experience in top competition and physique.

Vietnamese bravery

The early days of the U20 World Cup showed that for young players, the competitive mentality plays an extremely important role. If confident, weak teams can completely beat strong teams and in fact, there have been many shocking results when weak teams beat strong teams. For example, Germany lost 0-2 to Venezuela, Portugal lost 1-2 to Zambia, Mexico had to struggle to beat Vanuatu 3-2, Argentina lost 0-3 to England.

At Cheonan Sports Stadium, the young team of coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team was supported by hundreds of Vietnamese people working in Cheonan City (South Korea). Many fans were surprised that coach Hoang Anh Tuan let his students play with an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation in the opening match. Duc Chinh played the highest position in the attack, 3 midfielders supporting the attack were Ho Minh Di, Duong Van Hao and Dinh Thanh Binh. The two central midfielders were Luong Hoang Nam and Nguyen Quang Hai.

U20 Vietnam starting lineup

Facing the tall opponent from New Zealand, the U20 Vietnam coaching staff had a reasonable strategy and created a balanced game, sometimes dominating in the first 45 minutes. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan's students exploded in the last 15 minutes of the first half when they continuously besieged the goal, forcing goalkeeper M. Woud to stay. The most regrettable moment in the first half was when New Zealand defender Cox let the ball touch his hand in the 16.5m box, but referee N. Alioum did not award a penalty to U20 Vietnam. In the first half, the U20 Vietnam team had 58% ball control (compared to 42% of New Zealand), made 11 shots, 5 of which were really dangerous opportunities that forced goalkeeper Woud to show his talent in saving; while the other team only had 2 shots.

After the break, Coach Darren Bazeley instructed the U20 New Zealand players to actively accelerate. This change immediately caused many difficulties for U20 Vietnam. The young team from Oceania under the guidance of Coach Darren Bazeley is familiar with the 3-5-2 formation to take advantage of their strong wing tactics. Goalkeeper Tien Dung's goal continuously faced significant threats, twice jumping to clear the danger, the central defender pair Tan Sinh and Dinh Trong had to work very hard.

In a match where the New Zealand U20 strikers lacked alertness and sharpness in situations in front of the U20 Vietnam goal and goalkeeper Tien Dung played brilliantly, the goal did not appear. Despite being surrounded, the Vietnam U20 still showed their ability to play sharp counter-attacks. The most regrettable was Hoang Duc's unbelievable miss in the 86th minute after Duc Chinh's pass, otherwise we would have deserved to win.

Historical mark

Facing a strong opponent, U20 Vietnam still had a ball possession rate of 54%, compared to 46% of U20 New Zealand, demonstrating the maturity of young Vietnamese players. The 0-0 draw against U20 New Zealand made U20 Vietnam the first team in Southeast Asia to win points at the U20 World Cup. Previously, Southeast Asian representatives had lost all in this arena. With what coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team did on the first day of the match, we have complete confidence in U20 Vietnam's ticket to the next round.

Line-up of the two teams:

U-20 Vietnam: Tien Dung, Tan Tai, Tan Sinh, Dinh Trong, Van Hau, Van Hao, Hoang Nam, Quang Hai, Minh Di, Thanh Binh, Duc Chinh.

New Zealand U-20: Woud, Ingham, Liddicoat, Asworth, Dyer, Noah, Lewis, Cameron, Sinclair, Cox, Myer Bevan.

AT