What personnel does Vietnam Olympic need to add to aim for AFF Cup 2018?
Vietnam Olympic team had a great success at Asiad 2018, with the final fourth place. However, the team still has shortcomings and still needs to add personnel, aiming to be able to compete for the AFF Cup 2018 championship with the number 1 football team in Southeast Asia, Thailand.
The Thai team may not have been successful at the 2018 Asian Games, and before that, they failed at the AFC U23 Championship earlier this year. However, at the national team level, Thailand is still a strong team, a very strong team in terms of regional football.
And when talking about the quality of a football, people rely on the strength of the national teams. That is the reason why world football still thinks that Argentina has failed for nearly 3 decades, because it has never won any continental or world championship at the national team level, even though Argentina has won 2 consecutive gold medals in men's football at the 2004 Olympics (the generation of Tevez, Ayala, Saviola, Coloccini, Heinze...) and 2008 (the generation of Messi, Mascherano, Di Maria, Aguero, Lavezzi...)
In addition, the current generation of Thai football at the national team level has a quality that is completely different from that of the country's U23 and Olympic teams.
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| The Vietnamese team will be stronger at the AFF Cup later this year. Photo: Huyen Trang |
At the national team level, Thailand possesses many talents who have reached Asian level such as goalkeeper Kawin, defender Theerathon Bunmathan, midfielder Chanathip Songkrasin ("Thai Messi"), or striker Teerasil Dangda.
Not to mention that Malaysia is also gradually stabilizing again, after a period of crisis at the top of football, weakening the domestic league and national teams.
Therefore, if the Vietnamese team wants to compete for the AFF Cup championship with the above strong football teams, it needs to supplement its forces to create the best team.
Moreover, the Vietnam Olympic team also had obvious weaknesses at the recent Asian Games. The biggest weakness was of course the lack of high-quality defensive midfielders, which significantly weakened the team's ability to defend from the second line. The evidence was that all 4 goals the team conceded at the tournament (3 in the semi-final against Korea, 1 in the bronze medal match against UAE) came from opponents attacking directly in the middle.
Domestic football currently has a number of quality central midfielders. In addition to Hung Dung, Duc Huy, Xuan Truong as we know at the Asiad, there are also Huy Hung (Quang Nam), Khac Ngoc (SL Nghe An), Do Van Thuan (HCMC Club), Nguyen Sa (Than Quang Ninh) who are bright names.
We are also currently lacking 1-2 other quality central defenders to supplement the backline. Although the current central defender trio of Duy Manh, Tien Dung and Dinh Trong play well and are very compatible, when one of these three cannot play, the defense immediately has problems.
Currently, domestic football has Ngoc Hai (SL Nghe An) and Thanh Chung (Hanoi Club) as promising names, capable of adding to the national team participating in the AFF Cup.
Moving back to the goalkeeper position, Bui Tien Dung is much more mature than a few months ago, significantly improving his ability to defend against high balls. Tien Dung also did not make any serious mistakes at the 2018 Asiad.
However, on the contrary, the goalkeeper currently playing for FLC Thanh Hoa did not have any miraculous saves in the last tournament (except for the situation of using his foot to block a shot from a Bahrain striker in the round of 16 match), the kind of saves that people will need more from goalkeepers, at a higher level than the national team.
In this regard, coach Park Hang Seo is not worried, because domestic football still has two very good goalkeepers, comprehensive in both the ability to defend against high balls, quick reflexes, and the ability to control the 16m50 area, those are goalkeepers Dang Van Lam (Hai Phong) and Nguyen Tuan Manh (Khanh Hoa).
Adding players to make the team better is what coach Park Hang Seo always aims for, because he is a coach who is open-minded and has the ability to connect positions very well. Believe that the Vietnamese team will have a strong squad, with the goal of competing for the Southeast Asian championship!