V-League 2024 – 2025: Tough competition at the top and bottom

Hanoi Club has not been able to break through

Hanoi FC is showing an inconsistent performance in the V-League. Coach Le Duc Tuan’s players have not been able to form a style of play, as although they still control the ball a lot, their attacks are fragmented and monotonous. The problem of the capital team is very old: foreign players and young players are too… unimpressive, so the responsibility of leading the game is placed heavily on the veterans, most notably Van Quyet.

It was Van Quyet who sparked the opening goal for Hanoi FC in the match against Ha Tinh FC on the evening of October 27, when he took a corner kick with an extremely accurate landing point, allowing Hai Long to swing his leg to volley and score the opening goal. Van Quyet was also the "explosive point" in the home team's playing style, when the ball was always passed through the feet of the captain born in 1991. However, this is also the reason why Hanoi FC's playing style is easy to predict. The away team Ha Tinh blocked Van Quyet's influence very well, systematically dividing the ball, forcing the player wearing the number 10 shirt to move to the wing or kick far from the goal. With poor quality foreign players, Hanoi FC could not play long balls, and also had no idea of ​​attacking directly to replace the captain when he was closely marked.

Hanoi FC (left) shared points with visiting team Ha Tinh at Hang Day Stadium.

Hanoi FC conceded a goal in the last second of the first half and were also helpless in the second half against the tight tactics of Ha Tinh FC. Not only did Hanoi FC miss the chance to take second place, they also left concerns about their playing ideas. This is very worrying for Mr. Le Duc Tuan and his team if they want to compete for the championship with this force. Thanh Hoa FC is leading with 10 points, equal to the second-placed team The Cong Viettel but with a better goal difference. HAGL (3rd) and Ha Tinh (4th) are both behind with 9 points.

In the remaining match, SLNA shared points with host Binh Dinh in a 2-2 draw. Both teams are unstable and have not been able to create a safe distance from the bottom group. After 5 rounds, the "peak" and "bottom" situation is taking shape, with a tight race between the teams.

TEAMS ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE LAZY TO ATTACK

When the Hanoi Police Club (CAHN) struggled to defeat Binh Duong 1-0 in round 3 of the V-League, Thanh Nien asked coach Alexandre Polking: “Why does the CAHN team score goals so consistently in the Southeast Asian tournament, but struggle in the V-League?”. Mr. Polking explained: “The matches in the V-League are always very physical, so it has never been easy to score goals in this playground. V-League teams are often very cautious, choosing a fierce and tight defensive approach. Therefore, scoring goals is always very difficult.”

In round 5 of the V-League, The Cong Viettel Club, despite playing with one less player against Binh Duong in the entire second half, still secured a 1-0 victory. Previously, in the match against Binh Dinh (round 3), The Cong Viettel fell into the opposite scenario: playing with one more player for almost the entire match, but lost 0-1 at home. Coach Nguyen Duc Thang of The Cong Viettel shared: "Facing a deep-lying defense is not an easy problem to solve, even though Binh Duong has many national team players in the attack and they also score goals regularly for the team."

In fact, the rankings show that except for Thanh Hoa Club, teams like The Cong Viettel, HAGL, Ha Tinh are ranked high thanks to better defense than attack, so they have only conceded 2-3 goals since the beginning of the tournament. As for attack, not many teams have guaranteed impressive scoring efficiency. For example, HAGL scored 6 goals against Quang Nam and SLNA in the first 2 rounds, but in the last 3 rounds, coach Le Quang Trai's team only scored 2 goals. Binh Duong scored 6 goals, but half of them were against Ho Chi Minh City Club in round 4. The average number of goals in the first 4 rounds is 2.2 goals/match.

The increasingly pragmatic tactics of the teams not only reduce the quality and dedication of the matches, but also affect the Vietnamese team. The proof is that coach Kim Sang-sik has not been able to make any new discoveries in the attack, except for the "lone swallow" named Bui Vi Hao. Coach Nguyen Duc Thang assessed that V-League teams are more defensive and perhaps that is why the Vietnamese team is not good at attacking.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/v-league-2024-2025-dua-tranh-kho-tho-o-dau-va-day-185241027222410328.htm