Vietnam team meets Thailand in AFF Cup semi-finals: Coach Park's plan fails

Entering the final match of the group stageAFF Cup 2020, Vietnam team is the easiest team compared to Malaysia and Indonesia because they only need to not lose to Cambodia to get the ticket to continue.

But coach Park Hang-seo wants to win big, to take the top spot from Indonesia when he was previously behind this opponent in terms of goal difference.

The Korean captain's calculation is reasonable, because in the same match, Indonesia is likely to beat Malaysia with a not too high score difference, based on the head-to-head record between the two teams.

Coach Park Hang-seo failed with his calculations. Photo: Hai Hoang

And to be sure, Coach Park Hang-seo still sent the strongest team to crush Cambodia as quickly as possible. In fact, the Vietnamese team also crushed their neighbors with superiority in playing style, score...

Vietnam team has topped the table, and played quite leisurely when leading by 4 goals, even holding on to aim for the semi-finals by continuously slowing down the match's tempo, at the time Indonesia was only leading Malaysia with a score of 3-1.

Vietnam team has the biggest win since the beginning of the tournament. Photo: Hai Hoang

But things turned around, Indonesia scored the 4th goal in the 82nd minute and then the Vietnam team wanted to score more but in the end failed because of the weakness in attack, finishing was once again exposed. Therefore, the Vietnam team had to fail the goal in the match that seemed the easiest since the beginning of the tournament.

After the match, the captain of the Vietnamese team said that in the semi-finals, any opponent is the same. If so, there is no reason for coach Park Hang Seo to be willing to play with the mainstays as seen.

Looking at Cambodia's football, if they need 3 points, perhaps coach Park Hang Seo does not necessarily have to put Que Ngoc Hai and Bui Tien Dung on the field when facing the risk of receiving more cards and missing the semi-finals or need Quang Hai and Hoang Duc to be present.

To put it bluntly, with just 4-5 key players, Vietnam's team would still be superior and easily defeat Cambodia, which only fielded 8 players born in 1998 or later to gain experience for the SEA Games in 2023 at home.

But coach Park Hang-seo wanted to avoid Thailand so he cautiously used the same squad that has almost always started important matches over the past few years to crush Cambodia, while hoping that Indonesia would not beat Malaysia by a large margin.

In fact, the Korean coach was not “lucky” when he wanted Indonesia to win against Malaysia but failed. But the most blameworthy thing is that Mr. Park still wanted his team to stay in the semi-finals, after leading Cambodia by 4 goals.

This calculation is not wrong, but it is unreasonable when the Vietnamese team only needs to move a little bit to score another goal against Cambodia, at that time Indonesia will have to chase further and even give up early instead of coming back and pushing Mr. Park's team back to second place in the table.

In the semi-finals, the opponents are the same or to win the championship, you have to overcome everyone. If so, why do you need to calculate and then fail like that, or does coach Park Hang-seo want Vietnam to win the group simply as a dose of... psychological doping?