Vietnam vs Cambodia Prediction (7:30 p.m. today): Champion's position

*The match between Vietnam and Cambodia will take place at 7:30 p.m. tonight (March 19) at Binh Duong Stadium. Dan Tri will report the match live.

Five players on the current roster of the Vietnamese team have never played for the national team, including two goalkeepers Tran Trung Kien (22 years old), Trinh Xuan Hoang (25 years old), central defender Pham Ly Duc (22 years old), midfielders Tran Bao Toan (25 years old) and Vo Hoang Minh Khoa (24 years old).

The new recruits wait for their chance to play in the match against Cambodia (Photo: Khoa Nguyen).

Among them, goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien, although named in the Vietnamese team that won the AFF Cup 2024, has not played a single minute. According to FIFA's current calculation, that also means that the goalkeeper of HAGL Club has never worn the Vietnamese national team jersey.

According to experts and current members of the Vietnamese team, these new players will likely be used in the match against Cambodia.

This is a friendly match, with the purpose of "warming up" for the match with the Laos team in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup, taking place a few days later, so testing is inevitable for coach Kim Sang Sik.

In addition, because Cambodia is a weaker team than Vietnam, if Mr. Kim does not take this opportunity to test young and new players, the Korean coach will rarely have another better opportunity.

Vi Hao (right) has the opportunity to play alongside Tien Linh (middle) on Binh Duong field, in the national team jersey (Photo: Khoa Nguyen).

In fact, the ability of the new players in the Vietnam national team is not too worrying. All 5 new players mentioned above have regular places to play in the V-League, in the colors of the clubs HAGL (Tran Trung Kien, Pham Ly Duc, Tran Bao Toan), Thanh Hoa (Trinh Xuan Hoang) and Binh Duong (Vo Hoang Minh Khoa).

For players who regularly face pressure in the V-League every week, the pressure that the Cambodian team creates for them is not a big deal.

Another issue in the national team that is receiving attention is the goal-scoring ability of the strikers. This is also an area that coach Kim Sang Sik will experiment with, after the injuries of Nguyen Xuan Son and Nguyen Van Toan.

A new forward line compared to the forward line in the AFF Cup 2024 will appear in the match against Cambodia. The 2024 Vietnam Golden Ball Nguyen Tien Linh will likely lead the attack of the team under coach Kim Sang Sik, but who will play next to Tien Linh, will the Vietnam team play with two or three strikers, is a topic of interest?

Cambodia is not rated as highly as the Vietnamese team (Photo: Khoa Nguyen).

Anyway, with the class of the AFF Cup champion, the Vietnamese team will defeat Cambodia and complete their tests, before entering the Asian Cup qualifying campaign right after this match.

Prediction: Vietnam team wins 2-0.