Eliminating Cong Phuong, what does Mr. Troussier have for the Asian Cup?; FIFA announces Top 3 nominees for The Best 2023 award

Eliminating Cong Phuong, what does Mr. Troussier have for the Asian Cup?

Cong Phuong's elimination, along with the fact that many veterans of the Vietnamese national team under coach Park Hang-seo are not being used, is raising the question of whether Mr. Troussier is bringing a young squad to the Asian Cup like he did with Japan?

Cong Phuong being outside of Mr. Troussier's plan is very different from the cases of Hung Dung, Bui Tien Dung or especially Hoang Duc in the first matches of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Specifically, the new players mentioned or in general in the upcoming Asian Cup, it is likely that the French strategist will still use many old names as seen in many matches under his tenure.

More clearly, in the first two matches of the World Cup qualifiers, although not using Hoang Duc, Hung Dung, Bui Tien Dung..., Mr. Troussier still fielded a starting lineup with almost the same frame, with 8-9 faces that appeared in the Vietnam team under coach Park Hang-seo.

And in the context of the V-League only going through a few rounds, the number of young players used at the club is not much, so it is difficult for Mr. Troussier to make big changes, at least at the upcoming Asian Cup.

Of course, with 50 players on the preliminary list to prepare for the Asian Cup, there are also many young names, but whether they can compete with experienced and classy seniors or not is another story.

So, don't be surprised if in the upcoming matches at the Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team will still be the same, except for a few special cases like Cong Phuong, Van Hau (injured) or Van Duc.

Vietnam women's team drops 3 places, close to Philippines in FIFA rankings

On December 15, the World Football Federation announced the FIFA rankings for December 2023. This is the first update since August 2023. During this period, the Vietnamese women's team will play a total of 6 international matches at the 19th Asian Games and the 2024 Olympic qualifiers.

Under the guidance of coach Mai Duc Chung, the Vietnamese women's team defeated Nepal, Bangladesh and India but lost to Uzbekistan and Japan (twice). These results caused the red team to lose a total of 11.65 points and drop 3 places, from 34th to 37th in the world.

In Asia alone, the Vietnamese women's team is still ranked 6th with 1611.3 points, behind the women's football powerhouses Japan, North Korea, Australia, China and South Korea. The gap between the Vietnamese women's team and the top 5 is quite large, nearly 200 points apart and will be difficult to bridge in the near future.

In Southeast Asia, the Vietnamese women's team is still number 1. However, the position of the girls in red is being threatened by the Philippines. In this update, the Philippines jumped 6 places, from 44th to 38th in the world.

The Philippine women's team has accumulated a total of 30.75 points after 7 international matches (W4, L3). The Philippines made a strong impression when defeating Hong Kong (China) and Myanmar to advance to the quarterfinals of the 19th Asian Games - where they were defeated by Japan. In the 2024 Olympic qualifiers, the Philippines lost 0-8 to Australia but beat Chinese Taipei and Iran, thereby still earning more points in the FIFA rankings.

Currently, the Philippine women's team has 1,571.64 points, only 40 points behind the Vietnamese women's team. Thus, the Vietnamese women's team is at risk of being surpassed by this opponent in 2024 if they do not improve their performance. This is not an easy task for Huynh Nhu and her teammates in the context of coach Mai Duc Chung leaving the team to retire.

Hanoi FC's defeated general is about to face Man City

Urawa Red Diamonds - the team that just lost to Hanoi FC - will meet Man City in the FIFA World Cup Club semi-final on December 20.

Man City will participate in the FIFA Club World Cup next week. The European champions will face Urawa Red Diamonds, who recently lost to Hanoi FC at My Dinh Stadium in the AFC Champions League.

On the evening of December 15, Urawa Red Diamonds faced Leon FC (Mexico) in the second qualifying round of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup. The match was tense throughout the first half. Both teams played with determination but no goals were scored. The strikers on both sides lacked sharpness in decisive moments.

In the second half, Urawa Red Diamonds tried their best. However, it was not until the end of the match that the Asian representative was able to make a difference. In the 78th minute, substitute Alex Schalk finished accurately after a pass from Kante to score the only goal of the match.

Victory over Leon FC sees Urawa Red Diamonds advance to the semi-finals and their opponents will be Manchester City.

This is considered a surprise of the tournament because Urawa Red Diamonds are going through a period of poor performance. They just lost 1-2 to Hanoi FC in the European Cup C1. The defeat at My Dinh caused Urawa Red Diamonds to be eliminated from the group stage of the tournament despite being the defending champion.

Man City is a completely different challenge. It is very difficult for Urawa Red Diamonds to create a surprise against the opponent from England. Man City does not have the service of the Haaland - Kevin de Bruyne duo but they still have many other stars who can change the game.

FIFA announces Top 3 nominees for The Best 2023 award

The World Football Federation (FIFA) has just announced the Top 3 nominees for the World's Best Men's Player award (The Best) 2023. Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are all on the shortlist.

According to the voting criteria, FIFA The Best recognizes the players with the best achievements from December 19, 2022 to August 20, 2023. The FIFA The Best jury consists of: Men's national team head coach, men's national team captain, football journalists and fans voting on FIFA's official website. The player who receives the most points will win.

In the process of voting for the best male player of The Best 2023, FIFA initially selected 12 players, then eliminated 9 and the remaining 3 best players. Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Erling Haaland (Man City) and Kylian Mbappe (PSG) finally surpassed 9 candidates including Julian Alvarez, Marcelo Brozovic, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Victor Osimhen and Declan Rice.

Messi, Haaland and Mbappe are the final three stars competing for the prestigious award. Messi won Ligue 1 with PSG, scoring 20 and providing 20 assists in 39 appearances in all competitions for the club. In addition, the 36-year-old superstar then won the CONCACAF League Cup with Inter Miami. Notably, Messi's achievements at the 2022 World Cup will not be counted because FIFA only records achievements from December 19, 2022.

Meanwhile, Erling Haaland won the great "treble" with Man City including Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. In addition, Haaland also scored 52 goals in 53 appearances in all competitions, breaking a series of records as well as winning many prestigious individual titles, including Premier League Top Scorer, Champions League Top Scorer and European Golden Shoe.

As for Mbappe, he won Ligue 1 with PSG like Messi, and scored 41 goals in 43 matches in all competitions for the rich French team. Overall, in terms of achievements, Haaland clearly "beats" both Messi and Mbappe in this race.

Tottenham puts pressure on Premier League Top 4

The earliest match of round 17 of the Premier League between Nottingham and Tottenham ended with a comfortable victory for the visitors, in the context that they had to play with one less player for nearly 30 minutes of the match. With this result, Spurs are putting great pressure on the 4th position of defending champion Man City.

Heading into the trip to the City Ground, coach Ange Postecoglou kept the same starting lineup as the win over Newcastle last weekend, with Richarlison playing as a centre-forward and captain Heung-min Son returning to his preferred left-sided role. Former Nottingham player Brennan Johnson played as a right-sided striker while Dejan Kulusevski played just behind Richarlison.

With a clearly attacking-minded squad, Tottenham took the initiative and had a chance to open the scoring in the third minute, but captain Heung-min Son could not beat goalkeeper Matt Turner. A few minutes later, former Nottingham player Brennan Johnson also forced goalkeeper Turner to work hard to block his shot.

Despite playing quite well against his old team, Brennan Johnson had a very sad day back at the City Ground when he was forced to leave the field in the 32nd minute due to injury to make way for Oliver Skipp. With this change, Kulusevski was moved to replace Johnson and it was the Swedish player who became the main character bringing victory to Tottenham in this match.

In the second minute of injury time in the first half, Kulusevski made a favorable pass for Richarlison to jump high and head the ball into the net of Nottingham, giving the home team the advantage before entering the break. It was also Kulusevski who sealed the victory for Tottenham in the 65th minute, when he took advantage of a poor clearance from goalkeeper Turner to unleash a powerful shot into the near corner.

On the day that Kulusevski shone brightly to bring victory to Tottenham, his Swedish teammate Anthony Elanga of Nottingham had a match to forget. The former MU player missed a chance to score in the middle of the first half when he could not beat goalkeeper Vicario in a one-on-one situation and when he beat the away team's goalkeeper in the second half, it was denied by VAR for offside.

Not only Elanga, Nottingham's attack had a very forgettable day, with many unfortunate missed situations. And with this defeat, Nottingham is now ranked 16th on the rankings with 14 points, only 5 points above the red light group but has played 1 more match. Meanwhile, Tottenham has 33 points after the win and although still ranked 5th, they have equaled the score with the 4th ranked team, Man City.

However, Tottenham's victory came at a heavy cost. In addition to Johnson's injury, Spurs were also without midfielder Yves Bissouma, who was sent off in the 70th minute after a dangerous tackle on a Nottingham player.