Round 12 V.League 2015: SLNA shockingly lost at home

(Baonghean) - Playing with the mentality of the upper hand and having a goal ahead, but mistakes in defense and wasted opportunities in attack caused the Nghe An team to lose at home against the Dong Nai team, who are struggling at the bottom of the rankings.

Before the match yesterday afternoon (May 3), although having just received the title of the best team of April, many people predicted a difficult match for SLNA when they had to face the "nemesis" Dong Nai. Remember, in the 2014 season, right at Vinh Stadium, Mr. Su made Coach Huu Thang and his students taste the bitter fruit when SLNA played aggressively but received a "counterattack" and lost 0-1. In the 2013 season, when SLNA was in very good form, they were also held to a draw by Dong Nai at Vinh Stadium.

In the 5th minute, Phi Son opened the score for SLNA in a quick counter-attack.

This season, with a rejuvenated squad, SLNA is in impressive form with 6 unbeaten matches, including 5 consecutive wins to jump to 2nd place on the rankings. Entering the match with the upper hand, SLNA quickly materialized their advantage with a goal in the 5th minute of the match. The player who opened the scoring was striker Phi Son - who was just awarded the title of best player of April. With skillful technique, from a pass from Ngoc Hai, "Ronaldo of Nghe An" skillfully controlled the ball with his chest and fired a dangerous shot that defeated goalkeeper Thanh Diep.

After being overwhelmed by the home team in the first few minutes, Dong Nai players quickly regained control of the game. With the advantage of 3 players in the starting lineup, Huynh Kesly, Peter and Nsi, coach Tran Binh Su instructed Dong Nai players to play the "all or nothing" game. Continuously, high balls were stuffed into the middle for tall striker Peter to threaten SLNA's goal. If it weren't for the excellent performance of goalkeeper Nguyen Manh, Dong Nai players would have had a chance to equalize in the first half.

Right at the beginning of the second half, the away team unexpectedly equalized in a messy situation.

In the first minutes of the second half, in a chaotic situation in front of SLNA's goal, defender Ngoc Hai awkwardly headed the ball into his own net, equalizing 1-1 for the away team Dong Nai. Not wanting to repeat the scenario in the match against Can Tho in round 11, coach Quang Truong urged his players to raise their formation to find a goal. While focusing on their attack, in the 70th minute of the match, SLNA was hit by a counterattack from the Southeast team. The one who "punished" the Nghe An team was midfielder Hong Viet - a former SLNA player. Shocked by being behind in the "holy land of Vinh", as if their pride was hurt and they had nothing left to lose, SLNA pushed their entire formation onto Dong Nai's field. On the away team's side, veteran coach Tran Binh Su instructed his players to "park a double-decker bus" right in front of goalkeeper Thanh Diep's goal to preserve the match score.

Due to impatience and bad luck, SLNA's chances to equalize the score continuously passed by Phi Son, Tuan Tai, Manh Hung... Not wanting to go home empty-handed, coach Quang Truong continued to send foreign player Abubakar and striker Phuc Tinh onto the field, but in an afternoon of excellent play, goalkeeper Thanh Diep showed his talent to save obvious goals for the away team Dong Nai.

Unable to penetrate Dong Nai's dense defense, Ngo Quang Truong's students silently left the field after the final whistle of 94 minutes of play at Vinh Stadium.

SLNA players left Vinh stadium disappointed.

Losing 1-2 to Dong Nai, SLNA ended a 6-match unbeaten streak and missed the chance to catch up with the top team in Group B. Binh Duong. This loss also caused SLNA to not break the losing streak or draw at home against the "nemesis" Dong Nai since the 2013 season.

Thus, in round 12, teams that were considered stronger than their opponents such as Hanoi T&T, B.Binh Duong, SLNA all “lost their heads” against weaker opponents. It is worth mentioning that in this match, SLNA’s defense, which is considered the most difficult to subdue in V.League 2015, conceded goals in silly situations, while on the offensive side, the strikers repeated the situation of wasting scoring opportunities with difficult shots that went out rather than into the goal, so many spectators who witnessed the match suspected that SLNA “gave” victory to the team that was thirsty for points, Dong Nai!

After this 12th round, the V.League teams will take a break until June 28 so that the national teams can gather to compete in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers and the 28th SEA Games. This will be the time for SLNA to improve their performance if they want to maintain hope of entering the top 3 of the season.

Duc Dung