U22 Vietnam - U22 Indonesia: Coach Huu Thang meets a worthy opponent?

(Baonghean.vn) - Despite losing captain Evan Dimas, U22 Indonesia still has a coach.Spaniardvery cunning -Coach Milla.

In terms of popularity, Mr. Milla is the most famous coach to have ever worked in Southeast Asia. It was not simple for the Indonesian Football Federation to decide to invite Mr. Milla to work with a salary of 1 million USD/year after parting ways with coach Alfred Riedl at the end of 2016.

Impressive resume

As a player, Coach Milla played for Barcelona for 6 seasons before playing for 7 years at Real Madrid and then moving into coaching. Coach Milla's most notable achievement was winning the 2011 European U21 Championship with the Spanish youth team, with key players now promoted to superstars such as: Goalkeeper De Gea, A.Hererra (MU), T.Alcantara (Bayern Munich).

It can be said that Coach Milla has an impressive resume for a ticket to lead Asian national teams, not just Southeast Asia.

As a player, Milla was coached by master strategists such as J.Cruyff (Barcelona, ​​1985 to 1990), F.Capello (Real Madrid, 1990 to 1997) and C.Ranieri (Valencia, 1997 to 2001). Luis Milla learned and accumulated for himself the knowledge of the pitch that was the premise for his later successes when he coached the Spanish youth teams.

Mr. Milla is the most famous military leader to have ever worked in Southeast Asia. Photo: Internet

It is believed that Coach Milla accepted to coach the Indonesian Football Federation's national team simply to gain experience before returning to European football.

The AFC U23 Championship qualifiers were his first exposure to regional football. Although Indonesia failed to qualify for the finals, the draw with Thailand U22 still earned Mr. Milla high praise.

At the 2017 SEA Games, in the opening match, U22 Indonesia once again held the Thai team to a 1-1 draw, reaffirming the ability of the 51-year-old Spanish coach. Obviously, currently U22 Indonesia does not have many outstanding individuals but has a coach with exceptional technical skills.

Early Strike

With the tension of a football match where the winning team will reach the semi-finals and the loser faces the risk of being eliminated from the game, Milla is full of tricks..Before the match, U22 Indonesia surprisingly asked host Malaysia to postpone the match with U22 Vietnam.

They want to play at Shah Alam Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 80,000 people, instead of the original Seleyang Municipal Stadium, which only has a capacity of 16,000 seats, to create conditions for more fans to cheer for the home team. One reason that coach Milla knows is simply to create excitement for the players.

Since taking over, Luis Milla has never used a two-striker formation for Indonesia U22, the Spanish coach’s preferred formation is 4-3-3. But he still declared: “We will most likely play with both Marinus and Ezra (Willian) up front in the next match.”

Cong Phuong is still the biggest hope of U22 Vietnam. Photo: Internet

With an attacking line, U22 Vietnam has scored 12 goals after 3 matches, as predicted by the Java Post Sports newspaper, an experienced coach like Luis Milla will have to worry about not losing before overwhelming the opponent. Not to mention Marinus is 20 years old, and Erza Willian is 19 years old, they are too young to play in such a decisive match, so clearly this is just a trick.

Therefore, in our opinion, despite losing captain Evan Dimas, U22 Indonesia will still play 4-3-3, and only in the final stages of the match will they play 4-4-2 to look for goals.

Under the guidance of Luis Milla, the Indonesian team is a well-balanced team with a tight, disciplined style of play based on a foundation of abundant physical strength. U22 Indonesia showed a very annoying style of play when facing U22 Thailand and eventually forced the opponent to share points.

More than anyone, Luis Milla knows the situation of Group B. If they win, Coach Huu Thang's team will officially advance one round early. If they draw, they will still have the right to decide in their hands when the final match will be against U22 Thailand, so facing Huu Thang will be a "brain-teasing" game for the two coaches.

There is no doubt that Luis Milla is a worthy coach on Coach Huu Thang's journey to find a gold medal!

AT