V.League 2019 Summary: The Return of the 'Samba Dancers'
(Baonghean.vn) - Since the 2019 season, V.League has increased the number of foreign players to 3 along with 1 naturalized player. This has brought a "Brazilian" wave to many Vietnamese teams and their contribution is also significant.
In the first 10 years of V.League wearing a professional shirt, Brazilian foreign players flooded the Vietnam National Championship. That was the appearance of Huynh Kesley Alves, Antonio Carlos, Cristiano Roland, Jose Almeida or Leandro...
By 2015, the number of foreign players began to become scarce in V.League. Instead, there were foreign players from Africa, mostly Nigeria and Jamaica. In V.League 2018, there were only 6 Brazilian foreign players regularly on the field. Among them, Claudecir (Quang Nam) and Gustavo (HCMC) were injured.
In V.League 2019, the number of Brazilian foreign players has also increased to 16 players in V.League teams. Up to 8/14 Vietnamese teams have registered Brazilian foreign players. Of which, Quang Nam, Saigon and Viettel are 3 teams that really like to use the "Samba" element in their squad.
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| SLNA failed with foreign player Alves Santos from Brazil. Photo: Trung Kien |
Viettel FC registered defender Almeida Santos, striker Jean Carlos and Bruno Cunha. Striker Bruno left an impression with 15 goals after only 14 matches since the return leg. Quang Nam FC used 3 Brazilian foreign players: defender Lucas, Gabriel Davis (3 goals) and Rodrigo (5 goals).
The team with 3 foreign players in the squad is Saigon FC with Gustavo, Geovane Magno and Pedro Paulo. Quang Nam is the team that uses 2 Brazilian foreign players and 1 player from Burkina Faso. Besides, Nam Dinh FC is similar with 2 strikers Diogo and Gutavo (Brazil), E. Agbaji from Nigeria. The two strikers of Thanh Nam FC have brought a total of 14 goals for the home team.
Ho Chi Minh City FC is a team that does not prioritize Brazilian foreign players in the squad, Vinicius is a Brazilian player who was loaned to SLNA from the second leg of V.League 2019. All foreign players of this team come from Cameroon, Chile, Nigeria and the US. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City FC has said goodbye to all of those faces when the season ends.
Hanoi FC is also a team that prefers to use African foreign players, namely Moses Oloya (Uganda), Pape Omar (Senegal) and P. Kébé (France). Another team that does not use Brazilian foreign players in the V.League is Than Quang Ninh with N. Laštro (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Y. Kouassi (Ivory Coast) and Dyachenko (Russia).
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| Foreign players Pape Omar and Bruno Cunha are the two players who scored the most goals in V.League 2019. Photo: Goal VN |
Similar to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City clubs, Thanh Hoa last season lacked the “Samba” element in the squad with the appearance of two Jamaican strikers, Stevens and G. Kurtaj of German origin. SHB Da Nang club, which has always preferred to use European foreign players, now has Brazilian defender Bernardo Frizoni.
SLNA is a team that often has quality foreign players and the most successful ones are the cases of central defender Damir Memovic (Serbia) and Michael Olaha (Nigeria). However, SLNA's two Brazilian foreign players, Alves Santos in the first leg and Vinicius, still did not live up to expectations.
The list of V.League top scorers is also witnessing the success of Brazilian foreign players. Accordingly, Bruno Cunha (Viettel) has 15 goals, Pedro Paulo (Saigon), Diogo Pereira (Nam Dinh) each have 12 goals, Joel Vinicius (HCMC and SLNA) has 11 goals.
Brazilian players who also performed well in V.League 2019 were João Paulo of Viettel with 7 goals, Wander Luiz with 6 goals for B. Binh Duong. Other foreign players who were top scorers were Pape Omar (Senegal), R. Dyachenko (Russia) and 2 Jamaican foreign players, Jeremie Lynch of Romario with 10 and 8 goals respectively.
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| Performance of Brazilian foreign players in V.League 2019. Graphics: Trung Kien |
Thus, of the 15 foreign players with the most goals, 7 are of Brazilian origin. This shows that the contribution of Brazilian players to V.League teams is quite large. This is also the trend of the top Asian tournaments. Currently in J.League, almost all Japanese teams prioritize using 3 Brazilian foreign players, the remaining foreign player slots are usually from Asia or Africa.
In fact, Brazilian players are more technically inclined than African foreign players who have the advantage of strength. However, not all coaches in V.League know how to use Brazilian foreign players because of their improvisation.
Although V.League teams are currently allowed to use up to 3 foreign players + 1 naturalized player on the field, this has reduced the playing opportunities for domestic players. V.League coaches rarely add foreign players to the midfielder position, instead using center backs and strikers.
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| Viettel FC is a relatively successful team with its Brazilian foreign player policy. Photo: Viettel FC |
That unintentionally causes domestic strikers such as Van Quyet, Tuan Tai, Dinh Bao, Quang Nam, Minh Tuan to not often play in their best positions. The two players who often play the highest, Duc Chinh and Tien Linh, have recently made significant progress and improvement thanks to being trusted to play as center forwards.
On the coaching bench, V.League 2019 witnessed 2 foreign coaches staying until the end of the season: Coach Chung Hae Seong of Ho Chi Minh City and Coach Lee Tae-hoon. Both of these coaches are from Korea and have their own marks.
If coach Chung Hae Seong's Ho Chi Minh City Club finished in second place, just behind champion Hanoi, HAGL also made significant progress in their playing style, finally finishing in 8th place overall.
Closing the 2019 V.League, Coach Chung Hae Seong also deserves the title of best coach of the season. Ho Chi Minh City Club does not have many stars, but the playing style and journey of this team are very impressive. In general, the V.League is currently lacking foreign coaches. And this is an opportunity for young, promising coaches of Vietnamese football./.
For a decade, SLNA has become a 'transit station' for foreign players in V.League.
(Baonghean.vn) - Not only is SLNA a source of domestic players for V.League teams, it is also a place to discover quality foreign players. The paradox is that foreign players often only stay at SLNA for a very short time.