Vietnam futsal team lost narrowly to defending runner-up Russia

As expected, right after the opening whistle was blown, the Russian team rushed forward to attack, forcing the Vietnamese players to retreat to defend. The first kick belonged to the naturalized player Robinho of the Russian team. However, goalkeeper Van Y showed his confidence.

Although losing the match, Vietnam played a brave match.

The ball was continuously passed to the two wings by the opposing team, then turned back and kicked very hard, but in the first minutes of the match, the red team covered each other quite closely, creating difficulties for the opponent.

The Russian team had many ways to approach the goal and launched many dangerous shots, but goalkeeper Van Y still played with full concentration. The opposing team's Pivo position had many skillful moves, making it quite difficult for the Vietnamese defense to defend. In the 5th minute, Van Hieu dribbled the ball strongly past 2 opponents and then shot very hard, but the ball missed the goal by a hair's breadth.

The team's fiso position often had strong shots from midfield and many times put the goal of the yellow star warriors in danger.

In the 10th minute of the match, Robinho dribbled past two Vietnamese players, then this striker had a one-two combination with his teammate, breaking through our defense and shot the ball in an open position to raise the score to 1-0 for the Russian team. Overall, the red team had 10 minutes of resilient play, but the reigning runner-up was too strong and conceding a goal was predictable.

After conceding a goal, the Vietnamese team attacked on the left wing. Dac Huy had a chance to face the opponent's goal but was unsuccessful.

Mr. Sergei Skorovich's students changed positions with each other in a very flexible way, causing many difficulties for our team. The Russian team played high pressing, so it was very difficult for Vietnam to launch an attack. When there were only 3 minutes left in the first half, from a side kick, the ball was passed to the opponent team with a live shot, raising the score to 2-0.

Immediately after that, Vietnam had an answer, the ball was passed from the right wing, Dac Huy penetrated the opponent's goal and headed the ball dangerously to shorten the score to 1-2.

In the first minutes of the second half, as usual, the opposing team still rushed to attack, creating many shots from the fiso and ala positions. Robinho was still the aggressive player, truly the trigger for the Russian team's attacks.

When the second half was half gone, Coach Pham Minh Giang's students had more confident attacks, surprising the Russian defense. Although they did not create any danger, they also reduced the pressure on Van Y's goal. Overall, our 3 teams played quite evenly.

The other team had very good technical skills but we played with full concentration and composure, neutralizing many dangerous attacks from the opponent.

As Vietnam gradually controlled the ball better, from the left wing, the opposing team had a classy dribble that eliminated Vietnam's defense, then shot diagonally past goalkeeper Van Y, raising the score to 3-1.

After that, our team also created some strong attacks and launched some dangerous shots. In the last minutes of the match, Van Y was brought onto the field, the Vietnam team played with 5 players without a goalkeeper. With this way of playing, the red team controlled the ball better and created many opportunities to attack the Russian team's goal. From that risky play, we got a goal to shorten the gap to 2-3. The lightning shot came from number 6 Duc Hoa, the ball went into the dead corner, leaving the goalkeeper on the other team helpless. In the last minutes of the match, Vietnam played very well, forcing the opponent to the home field and creating many clear opportunities.

At the end of the match, the Golden Star Warriors had to suffer a 2-3 defeat and stopped at the 1-8 round. However, we left a match with many emotions. A match full of resilience and courage and our team deserved to hold their heads high despite the defeat./.

Duc Anh