Vietnam team and impressive statistics

Coach Philippe Troussier's students created one surprise after another when meeting the 2023 Asian Cup championship candidate - the Japanese team.

The Vietnamese team had a brave match against the Japanese team. (Source: VFF)

The "Golden Star Warriors" stunned viewers when they scored twice against the Japanese team in the first half of the match that took place on the evening of January 14. According to statistics, it has been 4 years and 2 months since the "Land of the Rising Sun" team conceded 2 or more goals in the first half.

Specifically, the last time the Japanese team conceded 2 or more goals in the first half was in a friendly match in November 2019 against Venezuela. In the first half of that match, the Japanese team conceded 4 goals.

Specifically, Salomon Rondon scored a hat-trick in the 8th, 31st and 34th minutes. Yeferson Soteldo scored in the 38th minute. This is also the first time the Japanese team has conceded 2 goals in a match since September 2023, when they won 4-2 against Türkiye.

Goals by Dinh Bac and Tuan Hai also helped the Vietnamese team score two goals against the Japanese team for the first time.

In the previous 5 matches between the two teams, the Vietnamese team scored 1 goal against Japan in 2 matches, including an own goal in the 2007 Asian Cup by Keita Suzuki.

According to the homepage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Vietnamese team made 533 passes in the match against Japan.

Thus, coach Troussier and his team passed the ball more than a series of teams at the 2023 Asian Cup such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE - 519 passes), Qatar (487), Tajikistan (427), China (396) and Palestine (351).

Notably, 533 passes were made by the Vietnamese team when the "Golden Dragon Warriors" faced the Japanese team - the leading candidate for the 2023 Asian Cup championship. Coach Hajime Moriyasu's team made 741 passes in the match against the Vietnamese team.

The two goals conceded by the Japanese team came from set pieces. This is surprising because the Vietnamese team has the shortest average height in the tournament at 175.38cm, while the Japanese team has the 9th shortest average height in the 2023 Asian Cup at 180.50cm.

Dinh Bac - the player who headed the opening goal - is 180cm tall. After the match, former Japanese player Yuzo Kurihara criticized midfielder Wataru Endo (now playing for Liverpool FC) for making mistakes in the two goals above.

According to Sofascore statistics, Thai Son is the player with the highest passing accuracy rate of the Vietnam team at 98%. He has made 58 successful passes out of 59 passes.

Besides, Thai Son also had 1 key-pass (a pass that opened up a scoring opportunity). Thai Son also had a higher passing accuracy rate than the Japanese team's players such as Wataru Endo (89%), Itakura (92%), Taniguchi (90%), Morita (84%).

As of January 14, the match between Vietnam and Japan is the match with the most goals in the 2023 Asian Cup. There were 6 goals scored in the opening match of the Vietnamese team, with 4 goals belonging to the Japanese team. Previously, the match with the most goals in the 2023 Asian Cup was Iran's 4-1 victory over Palestine.

( according to VNA )

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/asian-cup-2023-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-va-nhung-con-so-thong-ke-an-tuong-257507.html