Winning big against Korea, Vietnamese futsal aims for high goals in Asia

(Dan Tri) - The Vietnamese futsal team won 5-2 against South Korea in the final match of the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship qualifiers, thereby winning a ticket to the final round as the top of Group D.

Before entering the final match in Mongolia, the Vietnamese team was still leading Group D thanks to a better goal difference than Korea. Therefore, a draw in the direct confrontation with this opponent would be enough for coach Diego Giustozzi and his team to maintain their top spot in the group. However, in the futsal arena, the Vietnamese team is still rated higher than Korea. In the most recent meeting at the 2022 Asian Futsal Championship, the Vietnamese futsal team defeated the Korean futsal team with a score of 5-1. Therefore, there is no reason for the Vietnamese futsal team to aim for a draw.

The Vietnamese futsal team won all 5 matches in the Asian qualifying round, Group D (Photo: VFF).

In fact, the developments on the field showed the dominance of the Vietnamese team over the Korean futsal team. Coach Giustozzi's students rushed to attack right after the opening whistle while Korea played with a rather low formation. The technical playing style and diverse attacking ability of the Vietnamese futsal team caused a lot of difficulties for the opponent. However, it took the Vietnamese futsal team 14 minutes to find the opening goal. Receiving the ball from the right wing, Duong Ngoc Linh and launched a beautiful one-touch kick that gave the Korean goalkeeper no chance to block. The opening goal helped the Vietnamese futsal team play more excitedly. Just about 2 minutes later, the gap was doubled for Vietnam with a powerful shot by Gia Hung that sent the ball straight into the opponent's net. In the second half, Korea scored a goal but that did not help them change the situation. Immediately after that, Coach Giustozzi's students continuously scored more goals with a diverse attacking style. Duong Ngoc Linh, Dinh Cong Vien and Nguyen Minh Tri scored in turn to raise the score to 5-1 for the Vietnamese futsal team. It was not until the end of the match that Korea scored another equalizer, when the match was already decided. In the end, the Vietnamese futsal team won 5-2 against Korea. This result helped the Vietnamese futsal team advance to the final round of the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship as the group leader, with 9 absolute points after 3 matches, scoring 16 goals, and conceding only 3 times. Meanwhile, Korea also advanced as the group leader. In the current Asian region, the 4 strongest teams include Iran, Japan, Uzbekistan and Thailand. The Vietnamese futsal team is striving to be in the group of 5 strongest teams in the continent and continue to earn tickets to the World Cup. The success of Vietnamese futsal in recent years has been greatly influenced by the orientation and investment of the VFF, when we participated in the World Cup twice (in 2016 and 2021), both times winning tickets to the round of 16. The 9th VFF Annual Congress 2023 taking place on October 15 will be the time for the VFF Executive Committee to evaluate and review each task to be implemented in 2023, as well as set out goals and roadmaps for Vietnamese football in 2024.

Dantri.com.vn