Song Lam Nghe An: Lessons from the bitter defeats

This is an encouraging result, especially compared to last season and compared to the team's tradition. But compared to expectations, current strength and the expectations of the majority of fans, Song Lam Nghe An could have achieved better results, at least judging from the 3 losses in the first leg and the things worth mentioning from these matches.

Song Lam Nghe An can achieve better results in the return leg. Photo courtesy

Song Lam Nghe An's 4 losses occurred at home against Topenland Binh Dinh (1-2) and away against SHB Da Nang (1-3), Hanoi FC (1-2), Viettel (0-2). Each of the above losses had different subjective and objective reasons, but they all had the same development: 2 matches leading (Topenland Binh Dinh, Ngoc Hai's goal, Hanoi FC with Olaha's goal) but then losing as everyone knows, due to Van Khanh's unexpected departure and Olaha's red card. The 3 losses against SHB Da Nang, Hanoi FC and Viettel all occurred when Song Lam Nghe An had a good game, played aggressively but were hit by the opponent's counterattack.

The home defeat against Topenland Binh Dinh could be due to the captain and the new, fragile force against the powerful army of the newly rich team, so it is easy to share. But the remaining defeats were due primarily to individual errors (Olaha, Ba Sang in the match against Hanoi FC for example) but mainly to system errors, errors of many people, in which the most important errors were from tactics, reading the game of the team's coaching staff, which is the place that needs to be dissected the most to have a more solid step in the second leg.

Remember the two away matches at Hoa Xuan and Hang Day against SHB Da Nang and Viettel to see that Song Lam Nghe An lost not only because of their strength but also because of the power of thinking from the coaching bench. Song Lam Nghe An pressed the field or the opponent actively gave up the field but was completely deadlocked before the tight defense, playing low that the opponent set up. At that time, Song Lam Nghe An did not fully anticipate the danger of the young U19 players of Da Nang like Phi Hoang, Dinh Duy, but the main thing was that Huy Hoang, Van Quyen, and Nhu Thuat were too young compared to the experienced Thanh Hung, so the Song Lam Nghe An defense always pushed up, always unable to keep up with the cross-line passes for the young players to compete, coordinate, and finish, making Van Khanh worse than ever besides being fragile and sensitive to injuries.

And even though Huy Hoang asserted that if Viettel had Hoang Duc or anything, Song Lam Nghe An would have had a strong and talented Xuan Manh, but in reality, the past few years have shown that Hoang Duc has continental class, is the most stable and excellent transitioner, the one who knows how to pass the ball well, knows how to finish more neatly than anyone else in Vietnamese football. Meanwhile, Viettel proactively gave up the field, trapping Song Lam Nghe An to push up as if they clearly saw how SHB Da Nang used to do well, then not only Hoang Duc but also Manh Dung or any defender also knew how to quickly pass the ball behind the away team's defense so that Geovane could cleverly and skillfully find it, causing difficulties for Ngoc Hai and Van Hoang. That means the whole team knew the lesson set by the coach, so they executed it in a unified, consistent manner and achieved the satisfactory results as we have seen.

After the humiliating and hard-to-swallow defeat against Viettel, Huy Hoang was right to say that the reason was “the defense lacked concentration” because this happened repeatedly in more than one defeat. But perhaps the fault lies first and foremost with the coaching staff when they refused to look back and learn from the previous defeat against SHB Da Nang. Everyone knows that SLNA has a tradition of playing defensive-counterattacking and is only good and sharp when playing with that spirit.

Just like the Vietnam national team, when the opponent gives up the field, they will have to play against their strengths, so they encounter countless difficulties, deadlocks, and disorientation. Song Lam Nghe An is also in a similar situation but does not have time to learn lessons, does not have a solution to "counter-plan" the opponent. When the coaching staff does not correct mistakes and puts many young players on the field, the impatience and weaknesses become more obvious. This will affect later on when Nam Hai, Xuan Tien, Van Cuong... enter the field, the team loses more and more matches, the inspiration to play football, to compete is difficult to improve compared to opponents like Phi Hoang, Dinh Duy, Manh Dung...

Song Lam Nghe An's attack faced difficulties in the match against Viettel when the home team used a large number of players in front of Nguyen Manh's goal. Photo: Chung Le

Of course, the most important thing to say right now is that Song Lam Nghe An has a stable force, potential, good foreign players, but still has to rely too much on Van Duc and Xuan Manh, while they need to be supported, shared, and shouldered more by their teammates. It is also necessary to admit that Song Lam Nghe An currently does not have a real talent like Hoang Duc, a young one like Phi Hoang, or foreign players like Geovane, Rimario... to be able to create breakthroughs in each match. In Huy Hoang's hands, there is only that, just "cut your coat according to your cloth" to row to get points from weak and good teams, accepting to go empty-handed against strong teams. The problem is to promptly learn from experience and lessons so as not to "fall into the trap" of opponents, minimize personal mistakes and system errors that have been made, then the top 3 will soon be reached and surpassed in the second leg, although everything is always unpredictable and difficult to predict.