U22 Vietnam - U22 Laos: Accelerating after a successful warm-up

U22 Laos is rated higher than U22 Brunei. At this SEA Games, U22 Laos players proactively organized and deployed a defensive style of play from a distance. The midfield tried to gain control of the midfield area.

Identify your competitors

U22 Vietnam has met U22 Laos 4 times in the past. We won all 4 matches, scored 11 goals and only conceded 2 goals. The victories of U22 Vietnam had the following scores: 2-1, 3-1, 5-0, 1-0.

The current style of play of Laos U22 depends heavily on the performance of midfielder Captain Soukaphone Vongchiengkham, who is small (1.55m tall, 53kg). The 27-year-old player is playing in Thai League 2 and is known as the "Laos Messi", and has faced Vietnamese players many times.

Tan Sinh and Trong Hung are having to practice separately with Dr. Choi. Photo: VFF.

On the contrary, the 4-man defense of U22 Laos played quite stably. Thanakhanty, Bounlovongsa, Singsavan were all strong in confrontational situations, but their ability to turn around was not fast.

Mr. Park's goal

Mr. Park's goal is still to win big, keep the main players and perfect the playing style to prepare for the match against Indonesia. With a hat-trick of headers, Ha Duc Chinh will likely still be trusted when the Lao defender is recognized as being quite poor at defending high balls.

After the match against U22 Brunei, who were too weak, despite winning 6-0, the red team still had some flaws in their performance. The most obvious thing was that the Vietnamese players seemed to not be used to playing on artificial turf. So there were many half-hearted situations, the Brunei players did not put any pressure but still made many wrong passes.

After the team's practice session at the Circuit Makati Blue Pitch, he spoke privately with four central defenders: Le Ngoc Bao, Nguyen Thanh Chung, Bui Tien Dung and Nguyen Duc Chien. That indirectly informed central defender Tan Sinh, who was injured in the previous match, would not play.

27-year-old star Soukaphone Vongchiengkham of Laos U22. AP photo

Two Vietnamese national team players, Trong Hoang and Van Hau, are in the “red team” and are required by the coaching staff to make many long passes. If Trong Hoang entered the field from the second half in the previous match and played a good leading role, this time Van Hau will be added on the left wing.

Mr. Park chose midfielder Hung Dung to observe and study the playing style of U22 Laos. It seems that he wants this midfielder added to U22 Vietnam to enter the field to control Soukaphone and start his "warm-up" at this SEA Games.

Obviously, midfielders Thai Quy, Viet Hung, Hoang Duc all played quite well in the opening match, but Mr. Park still needs to let the players Quang Hai and Tien Linh warm up. Surely after letting Trong Hoang and Tien Linh play in the previous match, the coaching staff will take turns putting the pillars into this match. Whether they come on the field from the bench or right in the starting lineup depends on Mr. Park's tactical calculations.

According to experts, the problem of the U22 Vietnam team at this time is not winning but how to score against Laos. The fact that Trong Hung and the strikers missed many scoring opportunities against the U23 Brunei goalkeeper needs to be corrected.

Expected lineup

U22 Vietnam (3-4-3):Bui Tien Dung, Van Hau, Ngoc Bao, Duc Chien, Thanh Chung, Trong Hoang, Quang Hai, Thai Quy, Viet Hung, Hoang Duc, Duc Chinh.

U22 Laos (4-5-1):Solasak, Bounphithak; Thanakhanty, Bounlovongsa, Singsavang, Sengvanny, Thinolath, Keophouvong, Kongmathilath, Vongchiengkham, Bounkong.