Ho Chi Minh City Club will ask for help from Lee Nguyen if in danger

According to coach Vu Tien Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City Club is still in contact with overseas Vietnamese midfielder Lee Nguyen and may invite him back in V-League 2023.

Lee Nguyen celebrates his goal in Ho Chi Minh City's 3-0 win over Da Nang in V-League 2022. Photo: Duc Dong — Lee Nguyen celebrates his goal in Ho Chi Minh City's 3-0 win over Da Nang in V-League 2022. Photo: *Duc Dong*

"Lee Nguyen is a treasure of Ho Chi Minh City FC," coach Vu Tien Thanh revealed after the 5-1 win over Da Nang in round 10 on the evening of May 31. "I have talked to him. In case the team encounters difficulties or is in the most dangerous situation, he is ready to come back and play a few matches. Lee Nguyen can play with midfielders Dao Quoc Gia and Tran Van Trung to control the match."

Lee Nguyen worked with coach Vu Tien Thanh in the 2022 season. He then returned to the US to play seven-a-side football and study for a coaching degree. Without this central midfielder, Ho Chi Minh City has had some difficulty in providing the ball to strikers Victor Mansaray and Hoang Vu Samson, and especially in controlling the game. Many times this season, Ho Chi Minh City took the lead but had to share points or go home empty-handed because they could not control the tempo in midfield. Therefore, they are often in the bottom two teams.

Thanks to the big win at Thong Nhat Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City has moved up to 12th place with seven points, two more than Binh Duong and Da Nang. "It's been a long time since we had such a brilliant match," said Mr. Thanh. "Defensive players like Tang Tien and Hoai An played well. The midfield duo also recovered the ball well. We played lurking, patiently and waited for the right moment. The two strikers Samson and Mansaray took advantage of the opportunity to win big."

Crushing Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City escapes bottom of V-League table

Before this match, Ho Chi Minh City had gone through consecutive matches with many goals. They lost with the same score of 3-5 to Thanh Hoa and Cong An Ha Noi and then lost to Ha Tinh 3-4 despite leading by two goals. "After losing to Ha Tinh, the players were sad, no one talked to each other. I was so angry that I had to bang on the table and chairs in the meeting. Of course, I also had to apologize to the players afterwards," Mr. Thanh revealed. "But I don't have good players, as good as the national team players. To stay in the league, we have to calculate each match, accumulate each point, regardless of home or away, the remaining matches are all finals."

According to the coach from Ho Chi Minh City, the second victory since the beginning of the tournament will help the players feel confident to compete for a high ranking, possibly the top 6 in the first stage. Therefore, he set a goal of gaining points in the remaining three rounds against SLNA, HAGL and Viettel.

Duc Dong

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