Ho Chi Minh City - SLNA: The confrontation of foreign players

Last year, Silva Vinicius was Than Quang Ninh's top scorer. In 21 matches, the striker, who played for the first time in V.League, scored 9 goals, not a bad result. The team from the mining land did not have enough money to keep this striker, so they had to let him go to Thong Nhat Stadium.

Watch out for Vinicius' right foot.

This season, Vinicius has played in 9/10 matches for the Thong Nhat Stadium team (except for the derby match with Saigon), in which the highlight was the match against the home team B.Binh Duong. With a double, including a goal in the 90th minute, he helped Ho Chi Minh City get 3 valuable points away from home. It is worth mentioning that 4/5 goals of this foreign player were scored away from home. In addition to 2 goals at Go Dau Stadium, the remaining 2 goals were scored when playing at Cua Ong and Pleiku Stadiums. The only goal at home was the match against Viettel.

It is worth mentioning that 4/5 of Vinicius' goals were scored away from home, with his right foot. Photo Sports 24/7

Silva Vinicius is a player who is very suitable for defensive counter-attacking style of play. Up to 3 out of 5 goals of this player were scored in counter-attack situations, the "specialty" of the Thong Nhat Stadium team.

The foreign player with the correct shirt number of his year of birth 94 has quite good personal skills. Although he plays aggressively, when needed, Vinicius still manages very well in the narrow 5.5m area. There have been 2 goals scored from seizing opportunities right in front of the opponent's goal. The remaining 3 goals were scored in the 16.5m area. Van Khanh and SLNA's defenders need to pay attention to this striker's right foot, 4 out of 5 goals were scored from his strong foot.

Palestinian player Matías Nicolás has only scored 1 goal so far in the match against Quang Nam. Matías was the “lucky star” of the Ho Chi Minh City team at the end of last season when he scored 9 goals in 6 matches. However, after his injury, he played 8 matches and only scored 1 goal, which is considered a failure for this foreign player, but SLNA did not ignore this killer.

The thing we want to warn SLNA's coaching staff and players about the appearance of Kesley Alves. This 37-year-old player has only played 3 matches, including 3 starting matches, but when he entered the field, Ho Chi Minh City changed its playing style. With the best technique among foreign players, and 15 years of experience in the V.League, this naturalized player has one of the most annoying dribbling styles. Huynh Kesley Alves is Ho Chi Minh City's "free kick machine", something that Vietnamese defenders must not forget.

The Ewonde - Olaha War

Number 7 Olaha is missing Van Duc, who played with him last year. Photo: Sports 24/7

Cameroonian center-back Louis Christian Ewonde was invited by Ho Chi Minh City to Thong Nhat Stadium to play with Huu Tuan and Vu Ngoc Thinh. Huu Thang's calculation was correct when this 30-year-old player had 6 matches that met the requirements, locking down the opponent's foreign players. The fact that Ho Chi Minh City only conceded 7 goals is the clearest proof.

Olaha is of course SLNA's most important foreign player. In the 4 matches he failed to score, SLNA failed to score. In a 4-4-2 formation, the home team will attack with the double-barreled cannon Matías Nicolás and Vinicius, forcing Olaha to retreat is something any coach must do. The important thing is when the coach will push Olaha up high to find a goal, which is not easy.

Unlike the match at Hai Phong Stadium, it is likely that Hoang Thinh, Sam Ngoc Duc, Quang Nam, players from Nghe An Province of Ho Chi Minh City, will start this match. The central midfielders Thanh Binh and Hoang Thinh each have scored 2 goals, it seems that the central area will be "crowded" because they know each other too well. Thus, the only chance will come from Olaha's cross-field shots, and it is likely that Sam Ngoc Duc will guard the midfield area.

In our opinion, with 3 foreign players and 1 naturalized player, the home team TP.HCM is superior to SLNA in both quantity and quality of foreign players. They have contributed 6/15 goals for the home team, are the factors that create breakthroughs and diversify the playing style. To get points, SLNA needs to support Olaha and take some necessary risks!