Que Ngoc Hai and his teammates have the opportunity to rewrite history.

Over the past quarter century, in six encounters withChinaAt the national team level, the Vietnamese team has consistently lost to their opponents. We scored 3 goals but conceded 20, including 3 matches where we failed to score a single goal.

Statistics favor the home team.

Specifically, in two matches during the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, the Vietnamese national team suffered defeats against China with scores of 4-0 away and 1-3 at home. Le Huynh Duc's goal against the visiting Chinese team, after beating coach Li Tie, who was then a left-back, caused a sensation among Southeast Asian betting circles.

Coach Park Hang-seo and his team are on the verge of rewriting the history of the rivalry between the two footballing nations. (Photo: VFF)

Under coach Alfred Riedl's guidance in the 2000 Asian Cup qualifiers, we continued to lose with a score of 0-2. The next time the two teams met was in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers, where the Chinese team won both matches with scores of 6-1 and 2-1. In the most recent match between the two teams in June 2012, the Chinese team also won with a score of 3-0. This shows that beating the Chinese team has never been easy for our team.

Rewriting history

But we still have grounds to rewrite history. Because in their most recent encounter, Coach Park's U22 Vietnam team defeated Coach Guus Hiddink's U22 China team 2-0 away from home. Many players from both teams who participated in that match will be present in the next one.

Looking at those who scored for the Vietnamese national team against China during that period – Le Huynh Duc (1997, in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers), Nguyen Vu Phong (2009), and Le Cong Vinh (2010, in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers) – it's clear that Cong Phuong, Van Toan, Tien Linh, and Quang Hai possess similar qualities to succeed their predecessors.

In terms of overall performance, Chinese football has not been as strong as it once was. The fact that a number of Chinese tycoons have withdrawn their investments has led to a decline in the quality of the Chinese Super League. Most recently, the Evergrande real estate group, an investor in Guangzhou FC which has eight national team players, has gone bankrupt.

This has resulted in the Chinese national team's recent performance no longer being among the top in Asia. Recently, the Chinese team dropped significantly in the FIFA rankings, falling four places from 71st to 75th in the world. This is an extremely disappointing result for coach Li Tie's team, despite the addition of four naturalized players.

The Chinese national football team recently played a friendly match against Syria in Sharjah (UAE), which ended in a 1-1 draw. Interestingly, Syria did not field their main lineup against China because many of their key players had not yet arrived in Sharjah (UAE), yet they still managed to score the first goal.

I myself have been in the UAE for a month to prepare the Vietnamese national team, allowing them to familiarize themselves with the pitch and weather. However, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) recently requested a change in the time of the match between the Vietnamese and Chinese national football teams. According to the original plan approved by the AFC, the match between Vietnam and China was scheduled to take place at 7 PM (UAE time, 10 PM Vietnam time) on October 7th.

However, the CFA recently requested a change to 9 PM (UAE time, 0 AM on October 8th Vietnam time) due to concerns about the hot weather in the UAE, which could affect the players' physical condition if the match started early. The CFA's proposal was approved by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). But it also reveals the CFA's anxiety ahead of the match against Coach Park Hang-seo's team, something they previously didn't pay much attention to. Que Ngoc Hai and his teammates now have a greater chance of getting points than ever before.