Only CAHN Club remains
Thanh Hoa FC has stopped at the group stage of the ASEAN Club Championship, after losing 0-3 to PSM Makassar of Indonesia in the final match. Thus, Vietnam has only 1 representative in this playground, which is CAHN FC.
After 5 matches, Thanh Hoa FC won 1, drew 3 and lost 1, standing second to last in the group with 6 points (behind opponents such as Svay Rieng of Cambodia or Terengganu of Malaysia). Despite having a place in both the ASEAN Club Championship and AFC Champions League 2 this season, after only 5 months, coach Velizar Popov's team is no longer participating in any international tournaments.
Thanh Hoa Club (yellow shirt) stopped at Southeast Asian Cup
Thanh Hoa Club withdrew from AFC Champions League 2 due to lack of strength, and also stopped at ASEAN Club Championship with only 1 victory.
In contrast to Thanh Hoa Club, CAHN Club is flying high in the ASEAN Club Championship. Coach Alexandre Polking and his team have defeated Buriram United, Lion City Sailors, Kaya FC and Kuala Lumpur to top the table with 12 points. This result helps CAHN Club enter the semi-finals with the top spot in the group with 1 match early, without having to worry about the match against Borneo Samarinda at 7:30 p.m. today (February 6).
Having secured first place in the group, CAHN Club will face the second team in Group B in the semi-finals of the Southeast Asian Cup. Polking's team's opponent is PSM Makassar, the team that just defeated Thanh Hoa Club. The first leg will take place on the field of the Indonesian representative on April 2. Then on April 30, CAHN Club will face PSM Makassar again at Hang Day Stadium in the second leg.
CAHN Club enters Southeast Asian Cup semi-finals early
Thanh Hoa Club is helpless
Thanh Hoa Club lost to PSM Makassar due to individual mistakes, such as Thai Son's missed shot in the first half, or goalkeeper Xuan Hoang's subjective play, giving away a goal to the opponent.
However, looking at the whole picture, coach Popov's students lost because they did not have enough squad depth to meet the very high competition density, spread from V-League to ASEAN Club Championship.
Coach Popov only has a fixed staff to "plow through" 17 matches since the beginning of the tournament. The Bulgarian strategist has shared many times that his students are overloaded due to having to compete continuously.
Take the case of midfielder Doan Ngoc Tan. The player born in 1994 played the entire AFF Cup 2024, then only had 3 days off before joining Thanh Hoa Club to compete with BG Pathum United in the ASEAN Club Championship. Although Ngoc Tan was very tired and nauseous when the first half ended, coach Popov still had to let his students play. Both Ngoc Tan and Thai Son are pillars of the Thanh Hoa team, so they have to compete at a high frequency, with almost no time to rest.
After being eliminated from the Southeast Asian playground, Thanh Hoa FC will return to the V-League and the National Cup. In the V-League, although Nam Dinh FC has taken the top spot with 2 more points, Thanh Hoa still has 2 matches left to play. If they can complete these matches, Ngoc Tan and his teammates will return to the top of the table.
Under coach Popov, Thanh Hoa FC often played well in the first leg, then ran out of steam in the second leg of the V-League. However, the Thanh team has a good relationship with the National Cup when it has won the championship for 2 consecutive seasons (2023, 2023 - 2024), thanks to defeating strong opponents such as Hanoi or The Cong Viettel in the final.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ban-ket-cup-c1-dong-nam-a-clb-cahn-dau-doi-thu-vua-thang-dam-thanh-hoa-185250206102857492.htm
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