Song Lam Nghe An: Invincible and... failure?

But it cannot be said that the 4 consecutive draws of the Nghe An team are a favorable start, after the recent results of no loss, no win. Coach Huy Hoang and his team still have a lot of work to do, after the break from now until next April. Especially, after the important training trip of U20 Vietnam with the participation of young stars such as Xuan Tien, Van Cuong, Nam Hai... and the number of national players focusing on the Vietnam National Team and U22 Vietnam if called by new coach Philippe Troussier, it is not easy to predict the force for this youngest coach of V-League.

SLNA meets Khanh Hoa. Photo: Chung Le

The good news in the away draw at Khanh Hoa was the good performance of both foreign players on the attack line, with Olaha providing one assist and one goal, Kandolo scoring one goal, bringing the record to 2 goals/4 matches. It has been a long time since we saw a goal from Song Lam Nghe An with a defensive - counter-attacking style, a prominent specialty of the Vinh team for many years.

That was when, in a situation of being surrounded, Dinh Hoang unexpectedly relieved the situation with a long ball from the center of the defense to the left wing, Olaha accelerated past an opponent's domestic defender and crossed the ball low as if placing it for Kandolo to run up and neatly place it into Van Truong's net. Before that, there was also a situation of passing the opponent on the left wing, Olaha crossed high but Kandolo did not handle it well, missing a golden opportunity. The two foreign players coordinated with each other to bring about a beautiful goal, which was the reason why the coaching staff of Song Lam Nghe An decided to sign the contract and why they were still persistent when the foreign players had not left much of an impression on the field before.

Song Lam Nghe An's second goal came from a long pass from Ngoc Hai (a great weapon that we have mentioned before when an attacking team needs to use the vision and skills of this player), and then Olaha escaped the offside trap and lightly touched the ball, causing Van Truong, despite his correct judgment, to let the ball slip out of his hand and fly into the net. Two goals from two different scenarios, although there was a bit of luck when the opposing goalkeeper made an irreparable mistake, but both showed that Song Lam Nghe An, if they really get into the groove, can do big, unexpected things, leaving opponents unable to react to these diverse, hard-to-block attacks.

However, with 2 unfortunate goals conceded in this match (and the 2 previous goals), Song Lam Nghe An needs to recognize the loopholes and gaps in defending high balls, set pieces, especially marking in the penalty area.

When Ngoc Hai left Song Lam Nghe An and did not have a foreign player to play center back, it was common for Song Lam Nghe An to often encounter difficulties due to the above situations. For example, in matches against Viettel, without the need for foreign players to speak up, Song Lam Nghe An was often defeated by set pieces and had very weak second-ball defense. Now Ngoc Hai has returned, plus the purchase of foreign center back Vytas, why are 3/4 of Song Lam Nghe An's goals conceded from headers by both foreign and domestic players?

It is very confusing that in both goals conceded in the match against Khanh Hoa, foreign central defender Vytas was not present in front of Van Tien's goal, but was worried about marking people somewhere far away? The first goal could have been Olaha's fault for not keeping close to striker Abdul? And the second goal was also from central defender Jairo who hit Van Tien in the face without anyone marking him, right in the middle of the goal? Except for the goal conceded due to Van Tien's silly mistake, the remaining 3 goals all came from the left and center wings and the right wing did not complete the final decisive aerial mission.

The defense of Song Lam Nghe An played really well and calmly in the draw at Dong A Thanh Hoa Stadium in round 2, but in the remaining matches, they made mistakes, even serious ones. Huy Hoang said that those were situations of "losing concentration", because the young players had not yet integrated... and he had diagnosed the problem correctly. Remember, Song Lam Nghe An's opponents after 4 rounds were not really strong, so their weaknesses and loopholes had not been fully exposed. It is worth discussing that the current foreign players did not fully meet the requirements, did not participate in effective defense, had clumsy ball control and handling skills, had poor pressure, could not promote their physical and physical advantages, were only good at clearing the ball but not good at resolving or scoring goals from aerial combat... If they do not promptly correct and repair, when they meet strong teams like Hanoi FC, Viettel, Binh Dinh, Thep Xanh Nam Dinh... whether Huy Hoang and his team can keep 1 point or not is very worrying, the risk of losing the match is increasingly present?

When Ho Chi Minh City team had their first win on Binh Duong field, the gap between them and Song Lam Nghe An is now only 1 point after 4 rounds. Song Lam Nghe An is currently only 1 point ahead of Binh Duong at the bottom, so things will not be easy for Huy Hoang and his team. So, from "undefeated" to "failure" is only different between "b" and "th", it seems very fragile, difficult to avoid if everything is still stagnant, not changing in a better direction after the break?