Coach Park had difficulty losing his players in the match against the Malaysian team.

Defensive difficulties

Coach Park Hang-seo himself, after returning to Vietnam from his home country of South Korea, quarantined himself and did not directly attend the Super Cup match at Thong Nhat Stadium. However, he saw Duy Manh had to leave the field on a stretcher after landing badly and colliding with a player of Ho Chi Minh City Club right at the beginning of the match.

Coach Chu Dinh Nghiem expressed his concern: “Duy Manh likely twisted his knee in the collision. He needs to be examined more carefully to know more, but this is a serious injury. Manh is in a lot of pain and cannot walk normally. I hope his knee does not have effusion so that we can take an X-ray and treat him soon.”

Goalkeeper Van Lam unexpectedly had to sit on the bench for two consecutive matches. Photo: VFF

In this match, although not the main reason for the 2 goals conceded, the performance of goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung in the Super Cup match and previous mistakes in the AFC Cup 2020 caused the "national goalkeeper" to lose points. This happened at the same time that goalkeeper Dang Van Lam was on the bench in the Thai League in the last 2 rounds.

The person who replaced Van Lam as "goalkeeper" was goalkeeper Yos Somporn in both matches, keeping a clean sheet, although the away team had more than 10 shots but could not defeat him. Coach Gama has not yet explained this, if it is not a technical issue, then the Vietnamese goalkeeper is having trouble with a story behind the scenes. This is the first time Van Lam has been involved in this since leaving Hai Phong to join Muangthong last season.

The goal of going deep into the 2022 World Cup qualifiers is facing obstacles when all 6 players who regularly play in the defense are having different problems. If Duy Manh is injured, Dinh Trong and Trong Hoang are suspended, Van Hau is on the bench at Heerenveen and Van Lam is on the bench at Muangthong United.

Hope Que Ngoc Hai

Captain Que Ngoc Hai is the only player still “intact”, but for the past 3 months he has only been practicing with Viettel. After the match with the Thai team at My Dinh Stadium on November 19, 2019, the former SLNA midfielder only had practice matches, the most recent match Viettel drew 1-1 with Hanoi FC.

Among the "familiar faces" in Mr. Park Hang-seo's hands, there are only two reserve players, Nguyen Phong Hong Duy and Vu Van Thanh, and an old face, Xuan Manh (SLNA), has just had a relapse of his injury.

Under Mr. Park from the 2019 Asian Cup, King's Cup to the World Cup qualifiers, the Vietnamese defense has remained almost unchanged. Stability and mutual understanding are what help the Vietnamese team to be the most solid in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The defense is the team's attack launch pad, the defenders have also directly scored and assisted. After 5 matches, we have only conceded 1 goal, along with Qatar, Bahrain, and Australia, and after Japan, we have never conceded a goal.

Captain Que Ngoc Hai is the only player in the defense who is physically fit. Photo: FBCN

Meanwhile, the host Malaysia has many advantages in terms of personnel and preparation time. In addition to the naturalized player Mohamadou Sumareh and 3 Malaysians Matthew Davies, La'Vere Corbin-Ong, Brendan Gan, they have added Liridon Krasniqi (Kosovo origin) and are rushing to complete procedures for Lee Tuck (British origin) and De Paula (Brazilian origin).

Coach Tan Cheng-Hoe can field a team with 7 Malaysian and naturalized players to face Coach Park Hang-seo. Not to mention, their professional league system is not postponed due to the pandemic, so Malaysian players will play 4 matches in the national championship and 3 other matches in the FA Cup before facing the Vietnamese team.

“Necessity is the mother of invention”, under Mr. Park, we have overcome unimaginable difficulties many times. Many Vietnamese audiences share that belief.