Round 20 V.League 2024/25: Heated race for championship, relegation and referee

Fierce pursuit

The matches in round 20 ended with advantages, good form and luck for the home teams. Most of the home teams won, except for Ho Chi Minh City, which lost 0-1 to Hong Linh Ha Tinh.

The biggest surprise of the round was still the 1-0 victory of the bottom team SHB Da Nang against Dong A Thanh Hoa. This defeat caused the Thanh team to fall to 5th place, while the Han River team had 14 points and was chasing Quy Nhon Binh Dinh fiercely.

The bottom group is still very unpredictable.Lam River Nghe Anranked 12th with 19 points, Quy Nhon Binh Dinh 16 points and SHB Da Nang just 2 points behind. Even Quang Nam in 11th place with 21 points as well as Ho Chi Minh City with 22 points can be dethroned at any time if a team below breaks away with a win.

At the top, Nam Dinh Green Steel won 3-1 against Becamex Binh Duong. Thanks to the 3 points earned in this match, Nam Dinh Green Steel continued to maintain a 2-point gap with Hanoi, the team that defeated Quang Nam at home with a score of 2-1 in the latest match of round 20 of V.League -2024/25.

The tournament will have 6 more rounds for the teams to decide their fate and from now on, the matches of V.League will become more dramatic and attractive than ever. This requires the teams to concentrate highly and take advantage of every opportunity they have.

The referee's decision is difficult to understand.

Round 20 was also a round that left many negative impressions on the refereeing work, especially in the match between The Cong Viettel and Song Lam Nghe An. Many TV viewers noticed some irregularities in the refereeing work, including the main referee, assistant referee and VAR referee team at Hang Day Stadium on the afternoon of April 25. At the same time, they felt regretful for the failure of coach Phan Nhu Thuat and his team.

Despite the presence of VAR technology, the referees seemed to have failed to make accurate decisions and were unable to control the balance of the match. First, in the first half, when The Cong Viettel player Nham Manh Dung used his hand to play the ball in the penalty area, referee Nguyen Viet Duan, with a favorable observation position, did not judge this to be a penalty for Song Lam Nghe An. Even the VAR room did not have any signal.

In the second half, Song Lam Nghe An was denied a rather confusing and somewhat emotional goal. In situations where the ball scored or did not score, the referee has the right to review the video, but referee Nguyen Viet Duan did not do so, despite the signal from VAR. This made the audience question the impartiality and ability of the referees, and Song Lam Nghe An also sent a document requesting VFF to intervene because they were so upset.

Not stopping there, in the match between Hoang Anh Gia Lai and Hai Phong at Pleiku Stadium on the evening of May 27, the home team's central defender clearly let the ball touch his hand in an unusual position after Huu Son's shot. Referee Hoang Ngoc Ha checked VAR but did not award Hai Phong a penalty. This was a fairly clear situation according to the rules, the referee seemed to have made a wrong assessment.

In the Football Laws group, a referee lecturer commented on the situations where no penalty was awarded in round 20: “The player stands still, does not move, just turns slightly but opens his arms, does not retract, then the ball hits his arm and is considered a natural arm position, no foul. Have the laws changed that much?”.

Once again, the refereeing is a big question mark for the tournament organizers as well as the Vietnam Football Federation. In order to regain the trust of the audience nationwide and improve the quality of the tournament, to make the V.League truly professional, it is necessary to minimize serious controversies like the last round.