Why did Mr. Park 'use' two versatile Nghe An players Trong Hoang and Van Duc?

An Thanh• DNUM_CGZAJZCABJ 17:40

(Baonghean.vn) - The AFF Cup 2018 group stage match at My Dinh Stadium was truly a battle of wits between the two coaches. With the versatile players Van Duc and Trong Hoang, Mr. Park "set a trap" and brought home 2 goals in a match where the ball possession time was only half that of the opposing team.

If the Thai players chose to hold the ball, pass the ball to find loopholes in the Vietnamese defense to attack, the Malaysian players chose to attack aggressively to break the opponent's defense system.

Based on their power base, Malaysian players are very willing to collide to wear down the opponent's physical strength, tire them out and find a way to get into goalkeeper Van Lam's goal. Therefore, if the Vietnamese team does not have creative and surprising tactics, the chance of scoring a goal is not high.

Set a trap

Compared to the Thai players, it is clear that the “Malay Tigers” are not as strange, but they are superior in strength based on their abundant physical strength. If the Gambian midfielder Mohamadou Sumareh is given space to accelerate, even the strong UAE players will have a hard time, let alone the Vietnamese players.

Vietnam national football team during training sessions in Thailand, Photo courtesy of Trung Kien

In the 2-0 victory at My Dinh Stadium in the group stage of the AFF Cup 2018, Coach Tan Cheng-Hoe "fell into the trap" set by Coach Park Hang-seo. When he returned home, Coach Tan Cheng-Hoe could not explain to experts why he held the ball for 69% of the time, made 622 passes (Vietnam 292) and had 4 corner kicks (Vietnam 1) but let Cong Phuong and Anh Duc score 2 goals.

A match in which Mr. Park Hang-seo arranged the midfielder pair Xuan Truong and Quang Hai to be "fragile and vulnerable" to make coach Tan Cheng-Hoe change his original intention of defending to earn 1 point, to attack. If players Hung Dung and Duc Huy had been put in from the start, the game would have gone in a different direction.

The Korean coach was quite strange when he "opened the gate" for the away team with a 4-4-2 formation with the duo Norshahrul Idlan (9) and Muhammad Shahrel Fikri (10) having a good chance to attack. In the times of scouting the situation of the Vietnamese team, the coaching staff of the "Malay Tigers" all said that the two links Xuan Truong and Quang Hai were not good at defense. Instead of attacking the flanks as usual, in this match, the Malaysian team used quite a lot of direct attacks.

Two versatile cards

In the 4-5-1 formation, Trong Hoang is an important card of Mr. Park, instead of sticking to the right wing, Trong Hoang was asked to move to the center, becoming the 3rd defensive midfielder of the Vietnam National Team. A match in which the young talent of Malaysian football, 21-year-old central midfielder Syamer Kutty Abba (14) was neutralized by Hoang "cow" and had to be replaced.

Trong Hoang. Photo: Trung Kien

If Cong Phuong's first goal was somewhat lucky when he received Anh Duc's pass from the left wing, the ball bounced from a foul shot into goalkeeper K. Che Mat's goal, then the second situation had Van Duc's mark. In the move to the center to support Xuan Truong and Quang Hai, receiving the ball from the HAGL midfielder, Van Duc had a split shot between the central defenders Zafuan (7) and Shahrul Saad (3) for Anh Duc to run down and score. This was an unexpected situation, outside the defensive scenario of the Malaysian visitors, because no one expected the home team Vietnam to send the left wing midfielder to the center to perform the task of creating.

Midfielder Phan Van Duc. Photo: Trung Kien

This is a goal that Malaysian experts highly appreciate the strangeness of coach Park Hang-seo, when seeing Mr. Tan Cheng-Hoe put Safawi Rasid (11) in to replace Sumareh (13), he asked Van Duc to leave the sideline and move into the center. Before winger Safawi Rasid could catch up with Van Duc, the home team's net shook for the second time.

Right after the goal, knowing that Van Duc was tired, he immediately brought Hung Dung onto the field to strengthen the defense. And when Duc Huy replaced Xuan Truong, the fate of the match was considered decided when 2 players with defensive tendencies entered the field.

It took a long time for people to understand why coach Park Hang-seo likes to use versatile players and Van Duc and Trong Hoang are always the type of players the Korean coach trusts.