"Wizard" Park Hang-seo skillfully "breaks the curse" of My Dinh

Until now, it is not known how the VFF's decision to move 40 giant stone balls around My Dinh Stadium affected the semi-final result, but Mr. Park Hang-seo's calculations directly led to the 2-1 victory.

Good game because of calculation

With Hung Dung suffering from a muscle strain and not ready to play, Mr. Park and the coaching staff of the Vietnamese team changed their personnel decisions twice. Initially, he intended to return Quang Hai to the central midfielder position, and put Van Quyet in the left-wing position, but for some reason, he decided to use Cong Phuong.

The Korean coach revealed: "Before that, I reviewed the video in Bacolod and realized that from the 60th to the 75th minute, the Filipinos played very chaotically, without any plan. If we can hold on in the first half, we will win." Photo: TK

But when the main team stepped onto the field, Quang Hai still played as an attacking midfielder while Xuan Truong played with Duc Huy in the central midfield position. Coach Park Hang-seo knew very well that if he dropped the formation, the Vietnamese team's goal would not be safe with strikers Phil Younghusband, Patrick Reichelt, and Stephan Schrock hungry for goals.

With a 1-2 loss in the first leg, the Philippines accepted to play an open game with a 3-4-3 formation with the "use the same stick to hit the same back" scheme of coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, which we can completely take into account.

But the fact that coach Park Hang-seo accepted to urge his players to grit their teeth and fight is something that few people expected, because he must understand his players' endurance to dare to use this trick.

The "guillotines" Alvaro Silva, Reed, Iain Ramsay continuously "knocked out" Quang Hai, Van Hau, Duc Huy with uncompromising tackles, with the leniency of Japanese referee Kimura Hiroyuki.

Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson calculated that with the Philippines' style of play to exhaust their opponents, in the last 20 minutes, veterans James Younghusband, Paul Mulders and J.Bedit would come off the bench to finish the match.

In fact, on the field, Ramsay, Ingreso, Schrock did quite well according to the Swedish coach's intention. Close-up of the TV camera also showed the worried face of goalkeeper Van Lam, the Vietnamese defenders had some awkward clearances.

Anh Duc also had to retreat to defend. The Philippines players were constantly awarded free kicks due to fouls committed by the home team. The away team also knew how to close the gap between players so the first leg split attack was difficult to execute.

Despite being closely marked, Quang Hai still shined and scored.Photo: Trung Kien

For almost the entire first half and the first half of the second half, the Philippines tried to disrupt their opponents' play, exhausting their physical strength. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese players tried to fight for every ball, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.

Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is determined to use his physical strength and stamina to set a "speed" trap, pushing the home team's players into a "battery-out" state, while the red-shirt players advocate playing with few touches to prevent pressing.

Like a chess player guessing the opponent's intentions, on one hand, coach Park Hang-seo went to the sidelines to direct the resistance, on the other hand, he sent Huy Hung - the second "sweeper" onto the field to reinforce the midfield area.

Young players like Van Duc were instructed to move up high to let the defenders pass long balls, while the attackers used the tactic of "using few to attack many" against the already tired Philippine defense.

Spicy Kimchi

Van Duc's armpit attacks seemed to be in the calculation of coach Park Hang-seo, and Mr. Sven-Goran Eriksson either did not believe that the Vietnamese players no longer had enough strength to attack, or knew but had no other choice but to attack.

When coach Sven-Goran Eriksson withdrew Ingreso and DeMurga to replace James Younghusband and J.Bedit, it was also the time for Van Duc and Quang Hai to shine and score the first goal.

Cong Phuong recreated his solo performance in Bacolod and ended with a classy goal. Photo: TK

When Cong Phuong entered the field, Vietnam's attack line had only 3 names: Tien Linh, Cong Phuong and Van Duc, assigned the task of creating goals themselves because Quang Hai had retreated to play central midfielder with the task of holding the ball.

Both Cong Phuong and James Younghusband then scored, exactly as the script of the two best coaches of this AFF Cup. The player from Nghe An recreated his solo performance in Bacolod and ended with a classy goal, while James Younghusband showed why he was a student of Chelsea football academy with a quick goal in a messy situation.

Mr. Park is recognized as the first person to "break the curse" of never winning at My Dinh Stadium in the AFF Cup semi-finals for the Vietnamese team.

An Thanh