Vietnam vs Cambodia: The last chance for Bui Tien Dung's team?

The Vietnamese team will play their final match in Group A.The AFF Cup 2018 kicks off tonight (November 24th). Although Cambodia has declared their strong determination, their motivation to compete remains a big question mark.

The visiting team only has 3 points and is already eliminated. Their inspiring head coach, Keisuke Honda, is absent. This suggests that the match against Vietnam is not of great importance to Cambodian football.

That context presented the first, and almost last, opportunity for reserve players of the Vietnamese national team such as Bui Tien Dung, Ha Duc Chinh, and Nguyen Huy Hung to get playing time.

The AFF Cup 2018 is almost halfway through. After 3 matches, coach Park Hang-seo has only used 17 players. There are still 6 players who have never played for the Vietnamese national team: Tiến Dũng, Hồng Duy, Đức Chinh, Xuân Hưng, and veteran goalkeeper Tuấn Mạnh.

There are two reasons why coach Park Hang-seo has not yet been able to give this group of players a chance.

Firstly, the difference in skill level between them and the starting lineup is quite significant. In attack, Duc Chinh is no match for Cong Phuong and Anh Duc, who have scored 2 goals in 3 matches. In defense, Dang Van Lam remains outstanding, while Trong Hoang and Van Duc are both playing very well. The only regret is for center-back Bui Tien Dung. He was one of the three starting center-backs for the Vietnam U23 team at the Asian Championships and ASIAD, but injury and the arrival of Que Ngoc Hai have caused Dung to lose his position.

Secondly, the 2018 AFF Cup journey has been more difficult than the team initially anticipated and the fans imagined. Before the tournament began, not many people thought that the reigning Asian runner-up and fourth-place finisher at the ASIAD would have to defend so defensively against Malaysia, be held to a draw by Myanmar, and currently sit second in the group after three matches.

These factors forced coach Park Hang-seo to field his strongest lineup in all three opening rounds. Therefore, opportunities for the reserve players have yet to arise.

But tonight, that opportunity presented itself.

As analyzed, Cambodia is Vietnam's final match in the group stage. If Van Quyet and his teammates reach the final, they will have to play four more extremely tense knockout matches. At that point, no more experiments will be possible. If Coach Park wants to focus on the long term, the 90 minutes against Cambodia is the ideal time for players like Tien Dung and Hong Duy.

I remember in the 2016 AFF Cup, also in the final match, coach Huu Thang made many changes to the lineup, bringing in a number of reserve players such as Au Van Hoan, Le Van Thang, and Cong Phuong (two years earlier, Phuong was a reserve for the Van Quyet and Cong Vinh pairing). In that match, the Vietnamese team was down to ten men in the 7th minute after Dinh Luat received a red card, but still won 2-1 thanks to Cong Vinh's excellent performance.

In their last three encounters, the Vietnamese team has won all three matches against Cambodia, scoring 9 goals and conceding only 2. The most recent match was in October 2017, when Vietnam thrashed Cambodia 5-0. The three goalscorers from that game are still present today: Van Quyet, Cong Phuong, and Anh Duc.

This means that even with a complete lineup change, the Vietnamese team still has the upper hand over Cambodia. Coach Park Hang-seo's team will win, perhaps even convincingly. If Malaysia can do the same at their home stadium, Bukit Jalil, then the top spot in the group will belong to Coach Park Hang-seo and his players.