Vietnam Team: One goal and defeat in a tournament

Both Vietnam and Indonesia suffered consecutive losses in the friendly matches before the ASIAN Cup and had a poor start in the opening match against strong opponents in this tournament. It is worth mentioning that when facing each other in the second decisive match, the Indonesian team did much better than before, while the Vietnamese team of coach Philippe Troussier and his team was almost completely "figured out" and ended the race even though there was still one match left to play as a formality against the Iraqi team on January 24.

From the beginning, the team from the archipelago continuously pressed the field, played close, and cut off the communication between the lines of the Vietnamese team, meaning that they were strong enough to disrupt the familiar playing style of the opponent to find an advantage for themselves. The situation of Thanh Binh pulling the shirt at the end of the first half, while the opponent knew how to fall down very reasonably and the case of VAR was extremely disadvantageous for the Vietnamese team, not only did receiving a goal like a bucket of cold water but also made the whole team chase and get impatient afterwards. It was not difficult to see Indonesian players continuously lying on the field because of any serious or minor mistake to make the match fall apart, causing the opponent to "cool down" the inspiration to compete...

Mr. Troussier said after the match that it was a “mistake in the penalty area” but clearly, this disastrous thing caused the team to concede a goal, a loss and moreover, an early loss in a tournament. It is not known whether Mr. Troussier and his team will be able to recover later or not, and who knows, this loss will be the “last straw” for the French coach’s coaching career in Vietnam?

The Indonesian opponent showed a different face compared to before with a squad of naturalized players who were considered "slow to turn around" and from there our agile strikers could exploit it freely? Unfortunately, right from the start, the Vietnamese team was constantly under pressure, unable to coherently deploy familiar moves, causing the game to fall apart, lose rhythm and not show the best as in the previous match against Japan. Right in the first half, the "lungless man" Thai Son was overwhelmed by the dizzying game that the opponent set up, while Tuan Hai was injured, Thanh Binh was afraid and was clearly declining, meaning that all 3 teams of the Vietnamese team were "broken", so even though we tried our best afterwards, we almost hit our heads against a stone wall.

The humiliating defeat of the Vietnamese team was “unpredictable” because we were intoxicated with the recent unbeaten past, because the opponent hid their cards carefully and the naturalization process was considered massive and had early results. To put it more broadly, the Philippine women's football team massively naturalized and immediately got a ticket to the 2023 Women's Football Finals before the "big sisters" Vietnam and Thailand, even having a heart-warming victory right in the first time participating in the biggest football tournament on the planet. Now it is the turn of the Indonesian men's football team to naturalize and field all 7 players in the continental tournament and at least made the Vietnamese strikers "hesitant and tired". That is, when being separated from the start, being relentlessly pressed, the Vietnamese players were forced to play high balls and long balls to break the isolation but were almost "captured" by the tall, physically strong opponents who "captured" every ball and every attack direction. The Vietnamese team could have actually scored an equalizer in the second half when Minh Trong made a rare pass inside for Tuan Anh to finish close to the goal. But the opponent did not let Tuan Anh finish easily, including the rampage of the Indonesian naturalized stars assigned to take charge of the defense.

Therefore, right after the match, Mr. Troussier immediately talked about naturalizing overseas Vietnamese players and sending Vietnamese players abroad to play if he wanted Vietnamese football to really improve? But the question that Vietnamese experts and fans are asking Mr. Philippe Troussier himself is whether he has selected the right and appropriate talent for the national teams? For example, did he trust Van Tung when this young player rarely played for Hanoi FC, and called Van Truong when this young player suddenly declined and showed no signs of a real comeback? Did he continuously use Thanh Binh even though he did not play well in the match against Japan, while keeping Duy Manh but still let him sit around? Did he abandon Hung Dung, then use him again and play very well in the match against Japan, then abandon him again in the most important match against Indonesia? Or did he just try to use Tuan Anh, who usually only played well in the first half? Not to mention the story related to Hoang Duc is showing many problems in the way the French teacher chooses and uses people.

It can be quickly realized that the Golden Star team went to Qatar without a series of key players and that it was not the best, most talented force of the Vietnam National Team. Maybe people will still create opportunities for the French coach in the U23 Asian Finals with some hope of an Olympic ticket as an unprecedented achievement, or the result of entering the 3rd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, when "taking revenge" against Indonesia? Therefore, there may not be a story about the French coach's departure/stay right now. But if he still lets the results of the upcoming U23 Vietnam or Vietnam National Team be poor, what will come will come, even if someone tries to remind the Indonesians of the lesson of patience with coach Shin Tae-yong to get a good result against Vietnamese football?