Concerns about the national team goalkeeper position

Worry

Currently, Dang Van Lam's Muangthong is struggling at the bottom of the Thai League rankings. In the round 11 match withSuphanburi, playing with more players for more than 30 minutes, but Muangthong United was still held to a 0-0 draw by the home team Suphanburi in the reverse final, causing Van Lam's team to continue to be at the bottom of the table.

After 11 matches, they won 2, drew 2 and lost 7, scored 9 goals, conceded 19 goals and ranked 16/16. Van Lam started 10/11 matches, ranked 4th in the list of goalkeepers who conceded the most goals in the Thai League.

Goalkeeper Tien Dung Photo courtesy of Trung Kien

The next hope is "national goalkeeper" Bui Tien Dung, who just had a disappointing match in his debut for the Hanoi team.

Remember, this goalkeeper from Thanh Hoa had to be on the bench for 18 matches before getting a chance to play. Simply put, in Hanoi, goalkeeper Nguyen Van Cong, born in 1992, has always been the first choice for the capital team for the past 3 seasons.

In his debut match against S.HB.Da Nang, goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung conceded two goals. The most regrettable goal was a wide-angle free kick from 23m by midfielder Thanh Hai. The goalkeeper actively moved to anticipate the opponent but was twisted by a Da Nang player.

Obviously, coach Chu Dinh Nghiem wants to give Bui Tien Dung a chance to regain his form to prepare for the national team for the King's Cup 2019. But with such a performance, goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung will hardly be able to start when Hanoi FC will play away against Nam Dinh.

New discovery

Nguyen Manh and his teammates entered the match against S. Khanh Hoa with a relaxed mentality. SLNA is currently ranked 3rd and has the best defense in V.League. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

Although coach Viet Hoang also has goalkeeper Phan Dinh Vu Hai, who was loaned to SLNA to participate in V.League 2018, and has played in 22/26 matches, Vu Hai's successful blocking rate is on average 77%, quite good.

Goalkeeper Van Toan was born in 1994, 1m83 tall, graduated from Hai Phong's training center with a simple, effective playing style and an extremely tough and stable mentality. For many people, goalkeeper Van Toan is a "reserve", needs to get acquainted with the team to plan for the long term rather than being the main goalkeeper for the national team at this time.

Fans have the right to ask why not call up goalkeeper Van Cong, who is in better form than Tien Dung. Leaving out a stable player who often plays on the field to choose a goalkeeper who is languishing on the bench and has an unstable playing mentality is unusual.

Tien Dung should only focus on the U.23 team to compete more fairly with his peers like Van Toan and Van Bieu rather than join the national team because of his past.

Expand opportunities?

Coach Park Hang-seo. Photo: Archive

Mr. Park Hang-seo has repeatedly affirmed: "Only call up the players with the best ability at the present time." Surely, after the goalkeepers' performances, Mr. Park will have to consider a lot.