U23 Vietnam takes advantage of every opportunity at the U23 Asian Cup

Unlike other coaches who choose a weaker “blue team” to find a favorable result to boost morale before entering the tournament, Mr. Park chose a fairly strong friendly opponent. U23 Bahrain showed impressive form with 3 wins, scoring 12 goals and not conceding any in the qualifying round.

Choose strong blue army

U23 Vietnam lost 2-1 to U23 Bahrain in a friendly match on January 3. Photo: AFC

This is an opponent in the same group A as host Thailand and has a similar playing style to the two West Asian opponents that U23 Vietnam will face in the upcoming finals, U23 UAE and U23 Jordan. This is also the match where Mr. Park continues to experiment with the quite successful aerial ball style at SEA Games 30 because U23 Bahrain is the 7th tallest team out of 16 teams participating in the finals with 1m78.3, while U23 Vietnam is ranked 13th with 1m76.8.

This is a friendly match for Mr. Park to decide who will play right wing to replace the suspended Ho Tan Tai and whether to keep Dinh Trong. Obviously, Dinh Trong's injury situation makes it difficult for him to play in the qualifying matches, but he is still a good backup option for Thanh Chung. He wants to make the most of the last minute for Dinh Trong's option.

The two coaches agreed that the match would be played in 3 halves, each half lasting 30 minutes, and there would be no substitutions. In fact, only goalkeepers Eli and Nham Manh Dung were not allowed to enter the field. It seems that, except for Dinh Trong, these will be the players who will play against U23 UAE, including goalkeeper Van Toan, Thanh Chung, Dinh Trong, Duc Chien, Trong Hung, Ngoc Bao, Hoang Duc, Thanh Son, Quang Hai, Tien Linh, Duc Chinh.

After testing on the left wing in the friendly match against B.Binh Duong, Trong Hung continues to have more opportunities after being supplemented by the coaching staff with the right wing technique and the footwork. On the opposite wing is Ngoc Bao, while Quang Hai plays as an attacking midfielder for the familiar double-barreled guns Tien Linh and Duc Chinh.

With this formation, U23 Vietnam still held the ball but could not block the direct attacks in the middle of the game from the stubborn Bahrain players. Surprisingly, the opponent tried a defensive counter-attacking style of play, giving the field to the away team.

After conceding a goal and keeping Dinh Trong and needing to test a new plan, Mr. Park only kept Thanh Chung, Duc Chien, and Duc Chinh. It is not difficult to guess that this is the vertical axis of the Vietnam U23 team at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship.

Create opportunities for students

In this friendly match, coaches are allowed to make unlimited substitutions. Photo: AFC

The starting lineup after the break included goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung, Thanh Chung, Tan Sinh, Thanh Thinh, Viet Anh, Bao Toan, Duc Chien, Viet Hung, Huu Thang, Danh Trung, Duc Chinh. Mr. Park took advantage of the rare minutes to finally evaluate the abilities of the positions that the coaching staff was still uncertain about.

With this formation, goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung stood in the goal, center back Thanh Chung returned to his familiar position in the middle of the defense, and Duc Chinh played as a striker with Danh Trung. The 5-man midfield including Viet Anh, Bao Toan, Duc Chien, Viet Hung, and Huu Thang played quite fiercely.

It seems that the possession of the ball but the lack of options to approach the goal of the tall players from West Asia signals certain difficulties when facing U23 UAE and U23 Jordan.

U23 Vietnam continued to receive the second goal in the 75th minute. After the loss, the U23 Bahrain coaching staff continued to test the reserve players and accidentally created conditions for us to equalize 1-2 in the last minute from the 11m penalty spot.

At the end of the match, Mr. Park had a long private conversation with center back Dinh Trong. It was quite similar to the conversation he had with goalkeeper Tien Dung before giving Van Toan a chance at SEA Games 30. The absence of Van Hau, now with Dinh Trong's poor physical condition, made Mr. Park quite a headache. What made him satisfied was the spirit of readiness to compete of his students, regardless of whether they were official or reserve.