Comments on the preliminary list of the Thai and Vietnamese teams

The deadline for Asian teams to finalize their list of 20 players to submit to the AFC is August 28, so both Japanese and Korean coaches have chosen to call up extra players. Thailand initially planned to call up 30 players, but the actual number ended up being 33, and Park Hang-seo has only tentatively called up 26 players.

Midfield battle

While Thailand has 4 players playing abroad, Vietnam also has 2 players, namely goalkeeper Van Lam and Cong Phuong. The 4 Thai stars playing abroad include 3 players in the J-League 1 (Japanese National Championship), midfielder Chanathip Songkrasin (Sapporo Consadole), midfielder Thitiphan Phokchan (Oita Trinita), defender Thirathorn Bunthaman (Yokohama F. Marinos) and goalkeeper Kavin Thammasajanan, who is playing for Och Luver Club in the Belgian 2nd Division.

The capital team has 9/26 players called up. Photo: VPF

While Mr. Park Hang-seo still decided to call up the "old man" Anh Duc for the strikers, Thailand "ignored" veteran striker Teerasil Dangda. Even more surprisingly, Coach Nishino only called up two strikers: Supachai Jaided - the player who got angry and elbowed central defender Tran Dinh Trong (in the 2020 U-23 Asian qualifiers), and striker from Bangkok United club Channanan Pombuppha.

It seems that Thailand will use a concentrated style of play to compete for the midfield area. When he was in charge of the Japanese national team, coach Nishino used to use a style of play without a real striker. The midfielders of the team from the Land of the Rising Sun are all capable of creating and scoring goals.

According to Siam Sport, looking at the preliminary list of the Thai team, it can be seen that coach Akira Nishino is calculating the "2 in 1" plan more clearly. The fact that there are 7 U22 Thai players (who will participate in the SEA Games at the end of the year) on the list proves this.

These include Jaroensak Wonggorn (Samut Prakan City), Supachok, Anon Amornlerdsak (Bangkok United), Jaturapat Satham (Chainat Hornbill), Eakkanit Punya (Chiangrai United), Supanat and Supachai Jaided (Buriram). Among them, Jaroensak Wonggorn, a 22-year-old winger, was once very prominent with the U23 Thailand team.

With only 10 days on hand, Coach Park Hang-seo did not risk choosing a new replacement because there was not enough time for assembly and testing. Thai press said that it was no coincidence that Trong Hoang and Van Hau were still on the call-up list, perhaps Mr. Park was using a diversionary tactic.

Physical concerns

Coach Akira Nishino called up 33 players for the match against Vietnam. Photo: FAT.

But calling up to 9/26 Hanoi players to the Vietnam national team is considered a double-edged sword. The advantage is that it helps Mr. Park to assemble the team less because the players have played together for many years. But when the players of the capital team are competing on all three fronts of V.League 2019, National Cup and AFC Cup 2019, it will make them tired and difficult to reach their peak performance.

If Van Hau has played nearly 40 matches since the beginning of the year and has been injured, Van Quyet, Ngan Van Dai, and familiar faces such as Quang Hai, Duc Huy, Hung Dung, Duy Manh, Van Kien, Thanh Chung have also played nearly 30 matches. Fitness has been and is a big problem for the Vietnamese team at this time.

The fact that HAGL is running away from the play-off position but has the second largest number of players in this training session, while Mr. Park "ignored" many players from Ho Chi Minh City, the team that is at the top of the rankings, is quite interesting. In addition to the 5 "HAGL-trained" players: Xuan Truong, Van Thanh, Van Toan, Hong Duy, Tuan Anh of Cong Phuong, although "wearing out his pants" on the bench in Belgium, is still on Mr. Park's list, showing that he has his own calculations.

No one believes that a careful person like Mr. Park would only call up 2 goalkeepers for the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, especially when Van Lam just had a forgettable match in the Thai-League. Perhaps he is waiting for goalkeeper Filip Nguyen to complete the procedure in time to be called up to the Vietnam national team list to participate in the match with Thailand. If not, Thanh Thang (HCMC) will have the opportunity to be called up as an additional player because at the moment this goalkeeper is playing quite solidly.