Vietnam Olympic 0-0 Uzbekistan Olympic: Optimistic signals

Coach Miura's students played well, created many scoring opportunities and only could not win when the strikers had an unlucky day at Thong Nhat Stadium, today, March 14.

Vietnam Olympic team could have lost if Singaporean referee Bin Jahari and his assistants had not been so strict in calling for offside, denying Pavlenko a goal when he headed the ball into the home net in the last minute of injury time of the second half. But that heart-stopping moment did not reduce too much the positive signals that coach Miura's young team created in the friendly match this afternoon.

Against an opponent who was theoretically considered to be much stronger in class, with superior height, physique, and physical strength, Olympic Vietnam still played a brave match. There were still some sloppiness of a young team that had just been assembled and had just gone through a period of heavy physical training, but the red-shirted players still delighted the approximately 30,000 fans present in the stands of Thong Nhat Stadium when they played confidently, giving back and even dominating for most of the time.

If luckier, Olympic Vietnam could have won with the chances they created in the official time of the two halves. Meanwhile, the defense, despite some shaky and cold moments, also made a good impression and promised to have important accumulations, especially in experience in dealing with high balls and opponents' good aerial combat.

In the second consecutive international friendly within five days, Coach Miura made some personnel changes compared to the victory over Olympic Indonesia in Hanoi. Tuan Anh returned to the bench to make room for other experiments in the midfield, while the attack line started for the first time with the striker duo HAGL - Van Toan, Cong Phuong.

However, the bright spot for Vietnam Olympic in this match was the familiar name - Vo Huy Toan. The midfielder from Lam Dong played aggressively in the middle of the field and often caused trouble for the opponent with his high-up moves to seize the opportunity to score. Down below, the defense, with captain Que Ngoc Hai in command, played well, effectively blocking the opponent's direct attacks. Goalkeeper Minh Long scored points with some brave and accurate cuts.

Therefore, although rated higher, Olympic Uzbekistan was only equal to the host in the number of dangerous situations created in the first half. In the second half, with a series of personnel adjustments, Olympic Vietnam showed more vitality in the attacks, with the soul being Cong Phuong, the star of the famous U19 Vietnam team last year.

But besides some situations where he made the audience happy or regretful with his technical handling or unexpected finishing such as the corner kick that curved straight into the goal in the first half and two powerful shots that made the opposing goalkeeper struggle to block, this player wearing the number 10 shirt still could not bring the necessary breakthrough for the Vietnam Olympic team. Cong Phuong, in many situations, overused his technique, was too eager to dribble and did not pass to teammates in more favorable positions. This was perhaps the most significant dark spot in the bright picture of the home team today.

Vietnam Olympic is still in the assembly, testing and running stage.They still have one more friendly match, in Bangkok with Olympic host Thailand before going to Malaysia for the U23 Asian qualifiers.

According to VNE