U19 Vietnam: Big win, big worries

With the home team mentality, U19 Vietnam almost completely dominated the game right after entering the match. However, U19 Mongolia proactively retreated deep to play extremely effective defense, which prevented coach Philippe Troussier's team from scoring the opening goal in the first half.

U19 Vietnam had a deadlocked first 45 minutes against Mongolia. Photo: Vietnamnet

One thing that is easy to feel is that the Mongolian team understands the attacking style of the home team Vietnam very well. The attacking lines from the two wings that U19 Vietnam is good at are almost completely blocked. Inside, the central defenders of the away team move extremely reasonably, neutralizing all the finishing options from our second line.

Not only defending tightly, U19 Mongolia still created dangerous direct attacks. They often used long shots from outside the penalty area, forcing goalkeeper Y Eli Nie to show his talent many times, or being denied by the crossbar.

The stalemate in the first 45 minutes prevented U19 Vietnam from opening the scoring, making the fans at Thong Nhat Stadium impatient. In the first minutes of the second half, things did not change much, U19 Vietnam still appeared deadlocked, showing no newness in their approach to the away team's goal.

In that difficult situation, U19 Vietnam had to rely on the brilliance of young player Nguyen Thanh Khoi (HAGL) to break the deadlock. With an extremely technical kick from outside the penalty area, Thanh Khoi did not give the Mongolian goalkeeper a chance to block and opened the score for U19 Vietnam.

Thanh Khoi's goal opened the door for the home team Vietnam. As if relieved of the pressure, the home team's strikers played more confidently and scored two more goals to win 3-0 overall.

It was only thanks to individual brilliance that U19 Vietnam was able to relieve the pressure and win 3-0 overall. Photo: Vietnamnet

Despite winning by a large margin, the U19 Vietnam attack still did not show any confidence as they missed too many good chances during the 60 minutes of the match. Coach Philippe Troussier's approaches to the away team's goal were not really diverse because they still relied too much on flank attacks.

The tactics that U19 Vietnam uses are not much different from the way Mr. Park is applying to the national team and U22. U19 Vietnam plays using a 5-4-1 formation when defending and immediately switches to 3-4-3 when attacking. The approach to the goal of U19 Vietnam only focuses on the wing. There is a lack of direct central coordination like what Mr. Park has done.

With a big win of 3-0, U19 Vietnam has a big advantage before entering the next matches in Group J of the U19 Asian qualifiers. In this group, U19 Japan showed their superiority not only because of the 10-0 victory over Guam but also because of their classy playing style. Perhaps the top spot in the group will be difficult to escape from the "Blue Samurai". The competition for the second place seems to only take place between Vietnam and Mongolia. However, according to the regulations, only the 5 best second-place teams will be allowed to participate in the 2020 U19 Asian finals. U19 Vietnam must score many goals against Guam and hope for a favorable result against U19 Japan.

It seems that the ticket to the final round of U19 Vietnam is not easy. Therefore, the army of Mr. Philippe Troussier needs to make necessary changes, especially in scoring, to have favorable results in the race for the right to play in the final round next year.