V-League and the power of the technical area

Typically, Dong A Thanh Hoa is an unbeaten team after 6 rounds of V-League 2023/2024. But in the 7th round at Go Dau Stadium, coach Velizar Popov's team had to "expose" to the home team Binh Duong despite controlling the game throughout the first half and most of the second half of the match.

The key to the match, according to Mr. Le Huynh Duc - coach of Binh Duong team: we saw that the away team played with all their strength from the beginning, so we retreated to defend firmly, waiting for opportunities and we succeeded. The result of 1-0 in favor of the home team helped Binh Duong continue to firmly hold the top position in the rankings, while Dong A Thanh Hoa dropped to 5th place and became the team that "knew defeat" for the first time in V-League.

Before that, in the match in round 3 of V-League at Lach Tray Stadium between Hai Phong and Hanoi Police (3-1), the head coach of the Lach Tray Stadium team, Mr. Chu Dinh Nghiem, had no difficulty in "reading" how the away team deployed their positions, including letting foreign midfielder Geovane Magno play deep. Coach Chu Vinh Nghiem understood that, as long as he "killed" this scary explosive, everything would follow the wishes of the Hai Phong team. Of course, there were many other reasons why the opening match of the Korean coach, Gong Oh-kyun, was a heavy defeat. But what is certain is that thanks to the initiative on the coaching bench, thanks to strict adherence to tactics, the Hai Phong team earned 3 full points against the defending champion with a good coach but did not understand the harshness of the V-League.

The two recent matches against Quang Nam (round 4) at Vinh Stadium or against Ho Chi Minh City (round 7) at Thong Nhat Stadium of the young team Song Lam Nghe An under the young coach Phan Nhu Thuat also left many tactical impressions worth mentioning about the opponent's "smart guessing". Remember the words of coach Philippe Troussier, head coach of the Vietnam National Team and U23 Vietnam, that players in the V-League only play well at high intensity within 60 minutes, the rest of the time they are slow to put the ball into play, walk, lie on the ground to drag the match to the end! That is true for both experienced players and young players, including the players of Song Lam Nghe An.

Understanding that, it was not until the second half that coach Van Sy Son sent the powerful foreign player Yago Goncalves onto the field and immediately scored the third goal for the away team. At the end of the match, once again, center-back Eze beat Van Viet from close range, leaving both foreign and domestic players of the home team Song Lam Nghe An helpless due to exhaustion.

Recently, at Thong Nhat Stadium, at the end of the first half, coach Phung Thanh Phuong also withdrew a domestic player and replaced him with foreign player Ntep, in order to take advantage of the fatigue of the young team of Song Lam Nghe An, but was unsuccessful. After that, this coach sent in the remaining foreign player, Timite, to put maximum pressure on the away team. Although they could not score, it was that pressure that caused young player Van Huy to make a serious mistake, causing the home team to lose miserably...

To see, in V-League, it is "normal" for domestic coaches like Huynh Duc and Chu Dinh Nghiem to know how to "read" and counter foreign coaches like Popov and Gong Oh-kyun, and never say that domestic coaches are inferior to foreign coaches in this fierce battle. Similarly, with their experience, Van Sy Son and Phung Thanh Phuong always easily know how to "grasp" Nhu Thuat to create advantages for their team, as the story just mentioned above.

Of course, here we also need to talk about the story of "powerlessness", knowing that but not being able to do anything. Coach Phan Nhu Thuat and his assistants know very well the ability and dedication of the young players of Song Lam Nghe An, most of whom are playing in the U-teams, but due to actual conditions, they had to be quickly promoted to the first team after a series of experienced seniors transferred to other teams. Ba Quyen, Van Luong, Van Bach, Nam Hai... who just played in the U21 national finals and now wear the first team jersey to play in the V-League, if not "forced maturity", then it is hasty, the time to get used to the big playground is too little. Goalkeeper Van Viet, although playing well, was only the starting player at the end of last season, now he wears the captain's armband, something that has never been seen in the Nghe An team since its establishment.

And with the way of training and competing in youth teams, young teams, now playing in V-League will be extremely difficult to compete with seniors, with experienced foreign players. In this season, Song Lam Nghe An has conceded a very memorable goal at the end of the match in matches against Hong Linh Ha Tinh, Quang Nam and recently against Ho Chi Minh City, all with the same reason: exhaustion, unable to keep up with the progress of the match in at least the last 15 minutes. Even though coach Phan Nhu Thuat knows this, it is very difficult to overcome when the force is only like that and to that extent, so being "figured out" by the opponent is something that will happen sooner or later...

The strength of a football team comes from its abundant force, the main players not too far apart from the reserve, good foreign players; from the strength of cheering in the stands; from a satisfactory reward system and maximum encouragement and of course the strength coming from the technical area. Having met all those conditions, Binh Duong, Nam Dinh… are playing sublimely and effectively, while Hoang Anh Gia Lai,Lam River Nghe An, Hong Linh Ha Tinh is facing many difficulties…is the “eternal rule” of professional football.

It can be affirmed that the appeal of football is shown in every ball on the field, every coordination, and the goals scored by the stars are the most noticeable things. However, do not forget that football also has talent and talent from the technical area, like the story of coach Le Huynh Duc or Chu Dinh Nghiem and many other good coaches, in each match, in shaping the playing style, creating a situation, predicting and controlling the opponent... to achieve the best results for the home team. The interesting, profound, and talented thing about football and the people who work in football is exactly that./.