AFC U23 Championship 2018: Identifying Coach Park Hang Seo's "Korean bus"

After entering the quarter-finals of the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, Mr. Park had no need to hide his pride: "Our decision to play with 5 defenders in 3 matches was necessary because we played against very strong teams."

All coaches when playing against opponents with better skills and physical strength choose the same style of play as U23 Vietnam, it's just a matter of how to operate it. In the third match, U23 Syria coach Hussein Afash, despite knowing our personnel and style of play very well, still couldn't break the defense line of the Korean coach's students.

Take the initiative and attack

When facing U23 Korea, for the first time, Mr. Park Hang Seo applied the 4-5-1 formation, something that U23 Vietnam had never used in more than a month of training and competition. Surprisingly, U23 Vietnam took the initiative to attack the Korean team in the first few minutes and scored the first goal. This was the only match in the group stage where U23 Vietnam had moments of playing an equal game with their opponents.

Mr. Park is the chief engineer of the “Korean bus”. Photo: Internet

Mr. Park commented that if we let U23 Korea stabilize their playing style, we will have difficulty in attacking. What was quite surprising was that he decided to let his students compete in each phase of the match. What was more surprising was that at the end of the match, it was the Korean players who were exhausted first.

During training, he arranged many players to play in opposite positions to test their adaptability, but when the tournament came, they were returned to their correct positions. Van Hau and Van Thanh have shown their professional abilities very well.

Side kick to counter side kick

In the match against U23 Australia, starting with a 4-5-1 formation, the two full-backs Van Thanh and Van Hau hardly participated in the attack. Coach Park knew that the Australian players really wanted to exploit the flanks to flip the ball into the 16.5m area. In that match, when counter-attacking, U23 Vietnam turned into 5-2-3, the three strikers Quang Hai, Cong Phuong and Duc Chinh created for each other.

Not being skillful in passing the sidelines and using many high balls from the middle of the field made U23 Australia's playing style become bland. The opponent's pressure was not strong enough, giving us space and time to organize an attack, with a little more luck we scored a goal.

In this match, Mr. Park parked the “bus” in front of the goal, but the “Korean bus” still had an attack plan in a defensive formation. It was quite surprising that Mr. Park directed Tien Dung, Duy Manh and the players to boldly fight in the air, using their weaknesses to counter their strengths, and surprisingly, we often won.

Break the game

Knowing that U23 Syria coach Hussein Afash needed to win and was thirsty for victory, Mr. Park Hang Seo used the trio Cong Phuong, Quang Hai, Van Toan to pass and hold the ball, hoping to slow down the pace of attack. The task of the attackers was not to shoot the ball but to make U23 Syria not have much of the ball, so that they could continuously besiege goalkeeper Tien Dung's goal.

Only Mr. Park dares to put Cong Phuong and Van Toan on the bench when needed. Photo: Internet

When U23 Syria played “all in”, Mr. Park brought a midfielder with defensive ability onto the field to support Duc Huy and Xuan Truong. The 5-3-1-1 formation set up a “3-decker bus”, defending layer upon layer but still boldly counter-attacking when having the ball. We focused on attacking in the middle instead of sending the ball out to the side like in the previous match.

With a reasonable strategy, along with the courage of the players on the field, U23 Vietnam has done what it wanted. If at SEA Games 29, the reserve players left disappointment, at this final round, the 3 reserve players all played quite well. Van Duc had 71 minutes of play that were considered full of effort, with 2 assists, 2 interceptions, and a successful pass rate of over 60%.

When asked about whether to bring the "Korean bus" to the field in the quarter-final match against Iraq, Mr. Park humorously said: "It's too early to decide whether we will use this tactic to play against Iraq." Very polite and artistic.

Vietnamese fans are gradually trusting this Korean coach.