Vietnam team: Concerns from the defense

(Baonghean.vn) - The Vietnamese team has officially entered the semi-finals after 2 consecutive wins. This is a well-deserved result after what coach Nguyen Huu Thang and his team have shown. However, the boundless joy in the taste of victory still has concerns about the defense.

The Vietnamese team under coach Nguyen Huu Thang is making steady progress while showing impressive form. Before embarking on the journey to conquer the AFF Cup gold cup, coach Nguyen Huu Thang and his team only conceded one goal against the representative from the West Asia region, the Iraqi team in the second leg of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Asia out of a total of 15 matches played, including official, friendly and practice matches.

Looking at that impressive achievement, many people will mistakenly think that the Vietnam national team has become perfect. Especially the opponents that coach Nguyen Huu Thang's team has overcome such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Indonesia... are all strong teams in the region.

Vietnam national football team is flying high under the reign of coach Nguyen Huu Thang.

However, to achieve that result, most of it requires the efforts of the attacking line with the timely brilliance of Captain Le Cong Vinh along with the stability of the midfield, especially the impressive performance of Luong Xuan Truong when he often launches passes that have become the trademark of the player currently playing for Inchon, Korea.

While the positions in midfield and attack are showing progress through each match. The defense still does not make the Nghe An strategist feel secure. Especially the central defender pair Que Ngoc Hai and Dinh Luat have not found a common voice and often make regrettable mistakes, causing the Vietnam national team to face certain difficulties many times.

Realizing the inherent weakness in the defense, the former head coach of SLNA has repeatedly reminded and experimented. However, all of those experiments have not yet brought solidity to Tran Nguyen Manh's citadel.

In the first match against the host team Myanmar, the experienced Vietnam team defeated the strong and youthful opponent with a score of 2-1 with 2 goals from Van Quyet and Cong Vinh. The victory in the opening match excited the fans. It has been a long time since the fans of the country have lived in such a joyful atmosphere.

However, in this match, the carelessness of the central defender pair Dinh Luat - Ngoc Hai continued to make the fans of the Vietnamese team "stop their breath". Coach Huu Thang repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the defense right on the field. The peak of that carelessness and lack of concentration was the price to pay from Aung Thu's equalizer 1-1.

Defense is the "Achilles heel" of Vietnam national team.

Normally, the above mistake could have been... appeased when the Vietnam National Team had won the final victory. But the thing to note here is that this is not the first time, it happened during the training period and so on, the feeling of insecurity has not yet subsided.

In the match against the fateful opponent Malaysia, the central defender pair Dinh Luat - Ngoc Hai and the player who unexpectedly replaced Dinh Dong, Au Van Hoan, still made regrettable mistakes. Fortunately, those mistakes were not taken advantage of by the Malaysian players. Coach Nguyen Huu Thang's team still got what they needed when Trong Hoang successfully finished, bringing home the necessary 3 points and boundless joy for the fans.

Under his reign, Coach Huu Thang is building the central defender pair Dinh Luat - Ngoc Hai as the optimal solution for the defense system: From the youth, aggressive and fierce playing style of Ngoc Hai along with the cover based on the experience of Dinh Luat, Coach Huu Thang considers him as an "old guard" in the defense of the national team. But after only two matches against opponents of equal strength like Myanmar and Malaysia, the limitations have been exposed.

If there is no solution, it will be very dangerous. Especially in the semi-finals or even the finals, the Vietnamese team will have to pay a very high price if those mistakes continue. The proof is in 2014, we lost to Malaysia due to mistakes in the defense.

To be successful, in addition to the attack knowing how to "finish" the opponent with goals, the defense must also be a solid support. Therefore, the domestic fans hope that with his previous experience as a defender, Coach Nguyen Huu Thang will find optimal solutions to strengthen the defense, completing the goal of conquering the highest position in this year's AFF Cup.

Cao Anh