Will spirit and will help Vietnam score points against Australia?

This team is considered the strongest team in group B. They just had a resounding 3-0 victory over China and are currently ranked first in group B.VietnamWhat needs to be done to be able to overcome that high mountain. This is the difficult problem waiting.Mr. Parkand the students find the answer.

Quang Hai celebrates his goal with his teammates in the match against Saudi Arabia. Photo: CTV

Impressions in the opening match

In the opening match of the third qualifying round, the Vietnamese team had a brave first half, all lines played calmly and restrained the terrible strength of Saudi Arabia.

The most impressive thing is the person who scored for the Vietnamese team. Contrary to the predictions of analysts, right from the first minutes of the match, Coach Park let his players attack the opponent. This was an unexpected and effective move by the Korean coach. Because in the first minutes, the opponent was still subjective and not focused enough to be able to shape the playing style. Therefore, it created an opening for us to punish their mistakes. Quang Hai had a cross-angle shot that delighted the fans, scoring the opening goal for the Vietnamese team.

After the goal, the red team applied a defensive counter-attack strategy. Our defense played quite well against the opponent's terrible pressure. Captain Que Ngoc Hai commanded the defense line to defend tightly, the central defenders played very alertly, covered each other effectively and neutralized the threats of the Arabs.

Mr. Park arranged the central midfield with two names Tuan Anh and Hoang Duc playing together. This is a plan that brought surprises to analysts. Because this pair of midfielders is not a pair of muscular midfielders with an advantage in physical disputes. However, when placing them together, we saw the correct calculations of Mr. Park. The pair of Tuan Anh and Hoang Duc stuck together and covered quite well in the midfield. In addition, with good technique, this pair of teams also escaped pressing impressively many times, helping our team have dangerous counterattacks.

Duy Manh let the ball touch his hand in the penalty area, causing the Vietnamese team to concede a goal. Photo: VnE

It was not until the second half that all of Coach Park's calculations collapsed. The reason was that Duy Manh let the ball touch his hand in the penalty area, the referee blew a penalty and showed him a second yellow card, sending him off. Playing with one less player and with the harsh weather, the players did not have enough physical strength to be able to stay alert and neutralize the opponent's play, so the result of defeat was inevitable. However, we watched the entire 90 minutes of the match and felt proud of the Golden Star Warriors. Because they fought with all their courage and strength to bring an emotional match to the fans.

The key to neutralizing the opponent's power

It is not Saudi Arabia that is the strongest team in Group B, butAustraliais the top team in this group. Because on the Fifa rankings, the kangaroo team is ranked 35th, and 3rd in Asia, while Saudi Arabia is only ranked 61st in the world.

The Australian team has many players in good form playing for big clubs in Europe. Notable names include: Tommy Rogic (Celtic-Scotland), Martin Boyle (Hibernian-Scotland) or Awer Mabil (Midjylland-Denmark), Ajdin Hrustic (Eintracht Frankfurt-Germany)... With a completely superior level, Coach Arnold's team has affirmed its strength with 9 consecutive wins recently. They scored 28 goals and only conceded 2 goals.

Australia showed superiority in the match against China. Photo: VnE

Especially in the match against China, the kangaroos' team played completely better than their opponents. They demonstrated a modern football, with good physique, strength, speed, and coordination with each other very smoothly and flexibly. In this match, Mr. Arnold's team controlled 62% of the ball throughout the match. Australia's attacks mainly came from aerial battles. With an average height of 1.82m, Australia often uses high balls as their main attack. According to statistics, 13/28 goals of Australia in the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup came from this effective attack.

With such a high mountain, the task for Coach Park to neutralize their strength seems to be an impossible task. Especially in the context that Vietnam is facing many difficulties when many key players cannot play. The defense, which is considered the key to winning points, is seriously damaged. Duy Manh received a red card and cannot play in this match, in addition, central defender Bui Tien Dung and Van Hau are also injured and cannot participate.

Australia celebrates a goal in the match against China. Photo: Internet

So what advantage does the Vietnamese team have? Perhaps the advantage we have is the will and a completely comfortable spirit when playing at home. The will to always overcome difficulties of the Vietnamese people will be shown by our players in this match. Psychologically, we are considered the underdog team and do not put too much emphasis on the goal of winning 3 points. Therefore, the players will also play easier, they will try to play their best, with the highest concentration and then no matter what the result is, the fans will not turn their backs.

In terms of expertise, we are a team that is completely inferior to them in terms of technique, tactics, physique and physical strength. Therefore, in a short-sighted way of thinking, Vietnam should play defensive counter-attack, wait for opportunities and maybe create a surprise.

To play that tactic, first of all, our two wings, Trong Hoang and Van Thanh, will have to stick closely to limit the opponent's players from being able to cross the ball from the two wings comfortably. Because the opponent team will mainly play high balls, the central defenders must be very alert and choose good positions to neutralize the balls in the air.

Will Van Duc shine in the next match? Photo: Contributor

The central midfield position will also be very important. In addition to covering and shielding the back line, the central midfield pair must have enough technique to be able to escape the opponent's high pressing style. This will open up counter-attacks and with the presence of Quang Hai and Van Duc up front, the opportunity to score is possible.

But until the ball rolls, it is impossible to know what tactics Mr. Park will use. We only know that we have a key to victory, which is the spirit and will of the Vietnamese people.