Asian Cup 2027 Qualifiers: Need to envision scenarios...

The Vietnam National Team (VNT) maintained a 10-match unbeaten streak under coach Kim Sang-sik, with a 2-1 victory over neighboring Cambodia, during FIFA Days on March 19.

There are still many concerns.

But in fact, it was a somewhat lucky victory when coach Kim's students did not create many opportunities against the team that was rated lower. If the opponent had not missed clear opportunities in the final minutes of the match, the Vietnamese team would not have had the joy of victory. This proves that at the present time, the reigning champions of the 2024 ASEAN Cup are not in the best form. If they are not careful, the Vietnamese team could lose points against the Lao team.

Trận đấu tối nay đội tuyển Việt Nam (giữa) cần phải thắng và phải thắng đậm Ảnh: QUỐC AN — Tonight's match, the Vietnamese team (middle) needs to win and win big (Photo: QUOC AN)

In the friendly match with the Cambodian team, the opponent has successfully completed the task of a "blue team" with a playing style, personnel and motivation quite similar to the Lao team. But on the contrary, the Vietnamese team has many concerns with the new unsuccessful experiments. Firstly, in terms of personnel, although coach Kim kept 9 regular starting positions and only made 2 small adjustments. But unfortunately, we were not successful in placing Tuan Hai in the center forward position and Trieu Viet Hung also could not adapt to the continuous high-intensity activities along the sidelines.

As a result, the hero of the Vietnamese national team in the second leg of the final match in Thailand, with the left forward position, was completely obscured and disappeared after the first 45 minutes when coach Kim arranged him to play highest on the attack line; while the left back of Hai Phong was out of breath after many times attacking and defending on the left flank and was also often exploited by the opponent with passes into the gap between the center back and the left full back. In 28 minutes on the field, Viet Hung did not leave much of an impression on the attacking front and made many positional errors when defending.

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Second, in terms of tactics, the 3-5-2 formation with 3 central midfielders Ngoc Tan - Hoang Duc - Hai Long could not control the midfield area. This caused Quang Hai, who was supposed to play high next to Tuan Hai, to retreat as a 4th midfielder. Therefore, Tuan Hai became isolated in the front line. The absence of Xuan Son or Tien Linh, who were not in good form, also caused the Vietnam national team to lose the option of passing the ball to the target striker. The Vietnam national team lost the ability to attack directly and effectively. The only way to attack was to pass the ball to the wing or in lightning-fast counter-attack situations. However, when the stars were not in good form, the Vietnam national team's attack lost its creative moments, and the power of the defending champion suddenly became gentle and harmless.

The recent match against Cambodia was the first time Vietnam only scored 2 goals against their opponent and also allowed Chanthea and his teammates to have 9 shots, of which 6 were on target, forcing Dinh Trieu to work hard to save the goal.

Must beat Laos and must take into account the goal difference

The friendly match with Cambodia made coach Kim worried about both the attack and defense. The Vietnamese team had 10 shots but only had 4 on target and scored 2 goals. More importantly, the first 2 goals came from set pieces and the second goal came from Van Vi's quickness, not from the well-coordinated attacks of the whole team.

With Tien Linh not in good shape after his injury in the V-League, it is likely that the Vietnam national team will have to calculate to field a squad without a target striker. That will be a big challenge for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team. In the last 10 unbeaten matches of the Vietnam national team, Xuan Son contributed 7 goals and 2 assists. The similar numbers for the new Vietnam Golden Ball 2024 are 4 goals and 2 assists. Together, they contributed to 15/24 goals of the Vietnam national team after the last 10 unbeaten matches.

The headache for the coaching staff is that they will have to struggle to find the best attacking solution and, importantly, one that fits the players they have. Tuan Hai will probably still be chosen because there is no one more capable than him. But on the contrary, who will support and pass the ball to him will also be a difficult question. Perhaps everything will be easier if we have the midfielder duo Hoang Duc - Quang Hai in their best form. Because with that, we will completely control the midfield and have many bases to aim for positive results.

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Ngoc Tan is responsible for defense, fighting and recovering the ball, Hoang Duc controls the midfield smoothly and skillfully. Quang Hai is higher up to support Tuan Hai, ready to rush up and finish when needed. In the last five matches in V-League, Quang Hai has also scored 2 goals and 1 assist. So hopefully Quang Hai will shine tonight.

Overall, Laos is not a worthy opponent for us. In the last seven meetings, we have won all of them and won by a large margin. Therefore, in tonight's match, Vietnam not only needs to win but also has to try to score many goals. Because the group also has Malaysia with many naturalized players. Vietnam also needs to be careful against this unpredictable opponent and also needs to imagine a scenario where we have to compare secondary indexes.

All beginnings are difficult, hopefully with the lessons learned in the match against Cambodia, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team will have a smooth start with a beautiful victory. Beautiful in both the score and the performance of the players.