Vietnam team impresses against Japan and the problem of 'decoding' Indonesia

(Dan Tri) - Coach Troussier and his team have scored points in the eyes of fans with an impressive performance against Japan. The French coach has shown his pragmatism and unpredictable ability to change tactics, which is worth waiting for.

Before the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar kicked off, Coach Troussier was under a lot of pressure. The French strategist himself admitted that "80% of Vietnamese people want me to resign". Besides the performance and performance, although most of them were friendly matches, one of the main reasons why the current head coach of the Vietnamese team received a lot of criticism was because he "dared" to change the formula that had been brilliantly successful of his predecessor. Under Coach Park Hang Seo, the defensive counter-attacking style of play was the guiding principle of the national team. Mr. Troussier pursued a different philosophy. In many interviews, the French coach always mentioned the control style of play. He emphasized aspects such as ball possession, passing, playing proactively, launching attacks from home... Inadvertently, Coach Troussier was labeled as dogmatic, bookish or even more cynical, autocratic and eccentric. "Where does the Vietnamese team get the skills to control the ball and attack against strong opponents?!", is a question that appears quite often on forums. However, the fundamental difference in philosophy between Mr. Troussier and Mr. Park is that one side holds the ball a lot, the other side wastes the ball less. In reality, using a ball control style of play does not mean having to push the team up to attack massively. Sometimes this style of play is even more practical than a concrete defense.

The most specific example is the Spanish team that won the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. La Roja at that time was the national team that dominated world football, but that did not mean they crushed their opponents with an attacking style of play. In fact, Spain used a slow possession style of play to prevent the opponent from having the ball to attack (how can you attack without the ball?!) and to wait for scoring opportunities. The proof is that at the 2010 World Cup, Spain only scored 8 goals in 7 matches but only conceded 1 goal, meaning they had 6 clean sheets. Because of La Roja's excessive pragmatism and boredom, the famous tiqui-taca style of play (holding the ball to coordinate attacks) was punned into tiqui-tacanaccio (holding the ball to defend) as a way of satirizing. Of course, the gap in class and position between Spain and the Vietnamese team is too great, and the tiqui-taka era has been dead for more than ten years, so there is no comparison or flattery here. The facts presented are only to prove that using a controlling style of play does not mean having to attack and impose, control is still applied in a pragmatic, defensive way and depends on each opponent to respond. With 30 years of experience in coaching and his long-proven ability, Coach Troussier is not naive and dogmatic enough to think about imposing himself on a superior opponent. Moreover, the French strategist has mentioned the issue of defense many times, but these words are easily ignored in the wave of anger for other reasons.

For example, speaking after the match against Iraq in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, coach Troussier shared: "In this match, I paid special attention to organizing the team without the ball and focusing on defending against a strong team like Iraq. The players had reasonable tactics to control Iraq's advantage. Remember that Iraqi players are much better and of a higher level than Vietnam, so we have to focus more." In this match, the Vietnamese team proactively retreated deep, defended tenaciously and only conceded a cruel goal in the almost final situation. The defensive system of the "Golden Star Warriors" effectively neutralized the opponent's attack, which had physical and technical advantages. In other words, the Iraqi team fell into a deadlock. However, in the surging wave of criticism, this positive aspect was not mentioned.

After the first match of the Vietnamese team at the 2023 Asian Cup finals, the wind is changing direction. The impressive performance against a strong opponent like Japan by coach Troussier and his team has made the eyes more sympathetic. In other words, the fans are gradually being convinced by the French strategist. Facing a team that is advancing to world class, the Vietnamese team not only played with indomitable will but also surprised and stunned the opponent many times with the coherence in playing style and tactical intentions. As mentioned, coach Troussier is not foolish to impose or attack against a strong opponent. The French strategist chose a defensive plan based on the foundation of holding the ball a lot. Takefusa Kubo, the star of the Japanese team, also had to admit: "To be honest, Coach Troussier did what we were trying to do. In the first half, we tried to do things that the opponent didn't like, to bring the game to our pace. But they were very good at making the first touch. Thanks to that, they were able to withstand Japan's pressure easily.

I'd love to see what kind of training they do. I think they have the best ball control in Asia. They're a connected team. We know they will play beautiful football, focusing on counter-attacks." To better visualize the defense of the Vietnamese team under Troussier, we can compare it visually with his predecessor in a similar match. That was when coach Park Hang Seo led the "Golden Star Warriors" to face Japan in the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup. In the encounter 4 years ago, Japan controlled the ball up to 68%, made 709 passes with an accuracy rate of 86%. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese team held the ball 32%, made 327 passes with an accuracy rate of 70%, meaning only more than 200 passes were on target. Those are common facts in a match where a strong team using a controlling style of play confronts an underdog team playing defensive counter-attacks. The two other encounters between the Vietnamese team and Japan in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers also witnessed almost similar figures.

Meanwhile, in the last match, the Vietnamese team under the leadership of Coach Troussier held the ball up to 42%, launched 533 passes with an accuracy rate of up to 81%, or more than 400 passes on target. In addition, a rather interesting data is that in the encounter at the 2019 Asian Cup, Coach Park's defensive-oriented Vietnamese team had 12 more shots than Japan (11). Meanwhile, in the last match, the number of shots of the "Golden Star Warriors" was only 6, equal to 1/3 of the number of Blue Samurai (15).

Coach Troussier's use of players in the match against Japan showed that he was both steadfast and flexible. He was steadfast in that there were positions that were doubted, but the French coach still put all his faith in his players. The most typical was Phan Tuan Tai's left center-back position. Before the ball rolled, experts still considered Tuan Tai to be Coach Troussier's "gamble". The success or failure of this coach may all come from the position of the player wearing Viettel's shirt. The reason is that Tuan Tai is not a center-back and is not strong in fighting, so it is difficult to ensure certainty. In fact, Tuan Tai had an acceptable match. Besides helping the Vietnamese team keep the ball smoothly, this player showed that he was not too "weak" compared to real center-backs like Bui Hoang Viet Anh or Nguyen Thanh Binh in fighting or covering. Besides Tuan Tai, the central midfielder pair Thai Son - Tuan Anh or left-back Vo Minh Trong all played well.

In addition, Coach Troussier also made personnel adjustments beyond many people's expectations, showing the ability to respond and transform in each specific situation. Most notably, the position of Do Hung Dung. The midfielder of Hanoi Club was brought in in a surprising way, changing the entire structure of the Vietnamese team's formation and further affirming Coach Troussier's pragmatism. With the presence of Hung Dung, the Vietnamese team almost switched to a 3-5-2 formation instead of the seemingly default 3-4-3 under the French strategist. That means the midfield is reinforced with an experienced player, capable of moving comprehensively and competing well. Statistics show that Hung Dung is the player who made and won the most one-on-one duels in the match (14/10). Besides Hung Dung, the use of Dinh Bac can also be considered a surprise. The result of this 19-year-old player shining brightly as if to prove Coach Troussier's correct use of people. According to SofaScore, the two highest-rated players on the Vietnamese team are Hung Dung and Dinh Bac (both 7.3 points), one veteran and one rookie.

Another thing worth waiting for and hoping for is that Coach Troussier has not yet used all the potential players to create breakthroughs. They are Nguyen Hai Long, Ho Tan Tai, Vu Van Thanh and especially Nguyen Quang Hai. Although he is going through a difficult period in his career, Quang Hai is still a "rare commodity" of Vietnamese football. This player possesses the star qualities to decide the match, as he has shown many times in the past. Coach Troussier certainly has a reason for bringing "son" Hai to Qatar and will use this midfielder with an extremely strange left foot. It should be emphasized that if the match with Japan only focuses on goal difference (limiting goals conceded), the clashes with Indonesia and Iraq will be vital to the Vietnamese team's chances of advancing.

Indonesia lost to Iraq in the first match. However, this team has also shown its ability to some extent. Moreover, Indonesia is always very "aggressive" when facing the Vietnamese team. Therefore, it cannot be underestimated. We need to look at the reality that if we lose to Indonesia, the Vietnamese team will be eliminated. All the efforts, hard work and impressions created from the match with Japan will be wasted. Hope only remains when we get points against Indonesia, and only bright if we win against Indonesia at 9:30 p.m. on January 19 at Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium (Qatar). Therefore, the players must keep their heads cool and their feet on the ground.

With the format of the 4 best third-placed teams advancing to the knockout round, the secondary index becomes very important. Remember, at the 2019 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team only advanced thanks to a better fair-play index (fewer yellow cards) than Lebanon. Therefore, the 2-4 loss to Japan is worth noting. In addition to conceding only 2 goals, they also scored 2 goals and did not receive any cards. Up to now, Indonesia has always been a difficult opponent for the Vietnamese team. What is expected now is how coach Troussier will defeat this opponent. Controlling play is the foundation, but whether the French coach will choose an imposing attacking or defensive style of play is a very attractive topic. The advantage of the Vietnamese team will be superiority in level and position. Indonesia will be under more pressure to win. And as mentioned, the Vietnamese team still has quite a few "guns up their sleeves". If utilized well and harmoniously, Coach Troussier's plan will not stop at the group stage!

Content: Ngoc Trung

Dantri.com.vn

Source link