Vietnam - Cambodia Team: The Red Separation

(Baonghean.vn) - At My Dinh Stadium, coach Mai Duc Chung and his team will have a rematch with neighboring team Cambodia in the 4th match of the final qualifying round of the 2019 ASIAN Cup. This is also the farewell of Mr. Chung "xe ca" as head coach of the Vietnam national team.

In the first leg match in the “Land of Pagodas”, thanks to the “golden” goal of substitute midfielder Quang Hai, Vietnam was able to gain all 3 points. However, the victory that Van Quyet and his teammates achieved in the capital Phnom Penh did not make the home fans feel excited and happy. Instead, there was a storm of criticism and anger for coach Mai Duc Chung and his team after their poor and weak performance.

The somewhat negative reaction of experts and Vietnamese football fans is completely understandable. Because in the past, Cambodia has never been on par with Vietnam in the field of sports in general, and football in particular. At all levels, Cambodian football teams have always suffered comprehensive and fairly easy defeats when meeting Vietnamese football representatives. At the national team level alone, in the 5 meetings between the two teams (excluding the match on September 5), Vietnam has won all 5 matches.

However, what coach Mai Duc Chung and his team showed at the Olympic Stadium in the capital Phnom Penh was a disappointment. Witnessing the performance of Van Quyet and his teammates in the match that day (September 5), it felt like our opponent was the "monster" Thailand, not the small team Cambodia. The red shirts played listlessly and weakly in the disputes with the opposing team's players. Objectively speaking, the 2-1 result in favor of Vietnam was unfair to coach Vitorino and his team.

Vietnamese players celebrate Quang Hai's goal that sealed the 2-1 win in the first leg. Photo: Internet

This rematch will be an opportunity for coach Mai Duc Chung and his team to make amends with the home fans, while the visiting team Cambodia also sees this as an opportunity to reclaim an old debt. Therefore, both the Vietnamese team and the team from the land of pagodas have made careful preparations and calculations for the battle at My Dinh Stadium on October 10.

As usual, the Brazilian strategist confidently declared: "In the match against Vietnam, we will definitely play differently. I used the last match (Indonesia 3-1 Cambodia) to test many things. I have a plan to counter the Vietnam team.

Cambodia will have personnel changes in the match against Vietnam. In the next match, solidarity and understanding between players are very important, my students understand that. I came here to help develop Cambodian football, I want my students to defeat Vietnam."

The statement of the captain Vitorino is only meant to encourage the players’ spirit, but in fact, just “a small swallow” Chan Vanthanaka is hard to bring “spring” back to Cambodia. A heavy defeat awaits coach Vitorino and his team ahead. Failure is inevitable for Chan Vanthanaka and his teammates.

On the other side of the front line, although coach Mai Duc Chung abandoned players in high form such as Nguyen Manh, Phi Son (SLNA) or Hung Dung (Hanoi FC), with a series of current good players, Vietnam is still superior to Cambodia. Notably in this training session, it is the return of striker Anh Duc (B.Binh Duong). With Duc "E'to", the problem of a central striker in the Vietnam national team after Cong Vinh's retirement has temporarily found a solution.

Coach Mai Duc Chung will leave the Vietnam national team after the match with Cambodia. Photo: Internet

However, Mr. Chung “xe ca” still appeared quite reserved when mentioning the constant progress of Cambodian football in recent times. The interim coach of the Vietnamese team said: “The Cambodian team has made great progress. They play very uncomfortably, we cannot bully them, winning 8-0 or even 12-0 like previous years. Everyone should look at it with respect, especially the players must not have the mentality of looking down on their opponents.”

Coach Mai Duc Chung’s modest statements did not surprise many people. Up to now, the strategist born in 1951 has always been a person who rarely makes “big” words. But that does not mean that Van Quyet and his teammates do not know how to create a magnificent victory against Cambodia as a farewell gift for their teacher. My Dinh Stadium is still filled with the main color red, the color of the Vietnamese flag, the color of victory and the color of separation in hope./.

Thanh Hung