AFF Cup 2024: The best tournament of Thanh Chung and Hoang Duc’s career

Leader of the defense

Before the 2024 AFF Cup, people talked a lot about two midfielders Que Ngoc Hai and Bui Hoang Viet Anh, predicting that one of them would become the leader of the defense. Then, Que Ngoc Hai was removed from the list for this year’s Southeast Asian championship because of his age and reduced physical strength. Viet Anh still came to the tournament, but the minutes he played were very few.

Even close to the start of the AFF Cup, people thought that the role of defense leader would belong to Do Duy Manh, when Duy Manh was given the captain’s armband. However, things gradually changed when the ball started rolling. Right in the opening match of the Vietnamese team against the Laos team, Duy Manh made a mistake in a situation where the Vietnamese team was awarded a penalty, thereby conceding a goal in the 5th minute of injury time of the second half.

That was the moment when coach Kim Sang-sik seemed to realize that he needed another midfielder, more technical and calmer than Duy Manh, to play the role of leader of the defense. Thanh Chung is the character that Mr. Kim Sang-sik realized had all these qualities. In addition to his personal abilities, Thanh Chung also has the ability to cover the defense very well and is good at covering his teammates well.

As for the ability to compete in duels, Thanh Chung hardly loses to any striker of any team at the AFF Cup 2024, from ball disputes on the field to aerial duels. Both former coach of the Vietnamese team, Mr. Phan Thanh Hung, and former coach of the U.23 Vietnam team, Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan, highly appreciated Thanh Chung’s professional capacity.

Thanh Chung is the player with the most minutes played by the Vietnamese team at this year’s tournament, more than the tournament’s best goalkeeper Nguyen Dinh Trieu and the tournament’s best player Nguyen Xuan Son. For the first time in his career, Thanh Chung played the role of defensive leader of the Vietnamese team, at an official international tournament. He completed the task excellently, helping our downline get deeper into the tournament with certainty.

The boss in the midfield, Hoang Duc, is so good

Unlike Thanh Chung, Hoang Duc has long been a bright star of Vietnamese football. This player won the Vietnam Golden Ball twice. Hoang Duc played a very important role in the championship of the U.23 Vietnam team at the 2019 SEA Games.

However, at the national team level, Hoang Duc’s leadership role has never been as clear as at the AFF Cup 2024. In the most important matches of the Vietnamese team, Hoang Duc all plays the main role. Especially in the first and second leg finals against Thailand, Hoang Duc both departed with the captain’s armband in hand, at a time when Duy Manh and Quang Hai had not yet entered the field. That reflects that coach Kim Sang-sik highly appreciates Hoang Duc’s role.

At the AFF Cup 2024, Hoang Duc plays lower than usual, compared to the familiar position that people have seen in this player over the years: the attacking midfielder position. Hoang Duc did not participate in the attack as much as before, he was assigned the task of kicking low to maintain the middle axis, regulating the play for the whole team.

In this new role, Hoang Duc also had to perform the additional task of recovering the ball and he succeeded. Hoang Duc did not recover the ball by tackling or rushing into the opponent to compete, but he used his technique to win the ball back for the Vietnamese team. After that, Hoang Duc himself shielded and carried the ball to the opponent’s field, occasionally launching creative passes, surprising the opponent’s defense.

This style of play helps Hoang Duc truly become the new boss in the midfield of the Vietnamese team. Particularly in the two final matches against Thailand, Hoang Duc’s role in controlling the ball was very important. It is Hoang Duc’s ability to control the ball that helps the Vietnamese team not be outmatched in the midfield, not letting the opponent force our midfield closer to the home team’s penalty area. That was the key to helping the Vietnamese team win the final against Thailand.