Looking back at 6 draws at Vinh Stadium last season, thinking about the 2020 season

According to statistics from the V.League 2019 Organizing Committee, last season, 91,000 spectators came to Vinh Stadium to cheer on SLNA, an average of 7,000 people/match. In 13 matches at Vinh Stadium, the Nghe An team won 5, drew 6 and lost 2, becoming the team with the most home draws.

Most home draws

Having 6 draws, including 5 goalless draws, has left the audience with little emotion in watching football. Let's review the draws of coach Duc Thang against the visiting teams Hai Phong, Nam Dinh (0-0), Saigon (2-2), S.Khanh Hoa, SHB.Da Nang, Than Quang Ninh (0-0).

Quang Ninh Coal has never won 3 points at Vinh Stadium. Photo: Trung Kien

To answer the question: Why did we not score a goal in 450 minutes at Vinh Stadium? We will dissect the tapes of 3 matches that all ended in a 0-0 draw. First, we analyze the match between SLNA and Nam Dinh, the team with the worst away record in V.League 2019. Leaving Thien Truong Stadium, the students of the Van Sy brothers only had 4 draws and 9 losses. SLNA was one of 4 teams that Nam Dinh drew, in a match where the home team Vinh Stadium did not dominate.

This was a match in which SLNA players held the ball 54% of the time, had 8 shots on goal 3 and no goals were scored. The away team had 5 shots, 2 on goal, slightly inferior to the home team. Van Binh and Ngoc Toan mainly played blocking duties, without any decent assists.

Ho Tuan Tai will take on the right wing midfielder position for SLNA in the 2020 season. Photo: File

In round 10 at Vinh Stadium, the Nghe An team welcomed S.Khanh Hoa, who were identified as the points bank. In the previous 9 matches, S.Khanh Hoa only won 1 match, drew 2 matches and lost 6 matches, so 99% of Vinh Stadium spectators thought that 3 points would be difficult to escape from the hands of coach Duc Thang and his team.

In fact, SLNA started the game not badly, holding the ball 63% of the time. But coach Vo Dinh Tan seemed to have read the home team's intentions, playing ambiguously throughout the first half. So in the first 45 minutes, SLNA players only had 5 shots and 1 on target, the quality of the attack was too bad, deadlocked, even only 1 dangerous situation after 4 shots, but if lucky, S.Khanh Hoa could have scored first.

Throughout the match, SLNA had 10 shots, 6 of which were outside the 16.5m box and had poor power. Of the 3 shots on goal, 1 was outside the 16.5m box and 2 were inside the 16.5m area. A match that showed Tan Tai, Olaha, Xuan Manh playing like strangers.

Draw on losing position

Hai Phong played erratically last season, but they are still an extremely difficult opponent for SLNA. Except for the 2018 season, when SLNA was in a desperate streak, they unexpectedly won at Vinh Stadium in the last match of the first leg, but for a long time, coach Truong Viet Hoang liked to play here.

At that time, Ngo Quang Truong was in the position of Technical Director of Hai Phong and it was not difficult for him to give advice to Hai Phong players to "overwhelm" the home team players. Hai Phong even held the ball for 52% of the time, and the home team became weaker towards the end of the match after being exhausted by the foreign players from Hai Phong.

Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA). Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

Obviously, SLNA also encountered the same difficulty as U23 Vietnam at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship, when the opponent gave them the upper hand and they were confused and could not organize a systematic attack.