AFF Cup: The Vietnamese team forgot the ‘mine’ of goals in set plays

Goals scored by the Vietnamese team

Even the only goal that the Vietnamese team has scored from a fixed ball from the beginning of the 2024 AFF Cup until now had a significant contribution from the element of luck. It was a goal against the Philippines, Van Thanh took a corner kick, a series of players on both sides jumped, but no one caught the ball, including goalkeeper Patrick Deyto on the Philippines side. The ball accidentally came right at Doan Ngoc Tan’s head, before Ngoc Tan headed into the net.

In addition to the fact that Philippine goalkeeper Patrick Deyto missed the ball in the above situation, the Vietnamese team had the next luck in that the referee did not make a mistake when Tien Linh collided with the Philippine goalkeeper in the 5m 50 area. In the match Thailand and Singapore on December 17, Thailand were denied a similar goal, after the referee checked VAR and detected a collision between the Thai player and the Singapore goalkeeper in the 5m 50 area, then refuse The goal scored immediately after by Pansa Hemviboon on the Thai side.

Except for the goal just mentioned by Doan Ngoc Tan, the Vietnamese team did not score any other goals from set pieces. And yet, in “dead ball” situations, the Vietnamese team rarely creates danger towards the opponent’s goal.

In terms of body shape, Vietnamese players are not too tall compared to other teams at AFF Cup 2024. However, it is difficult to say that our players are too short in height. In the hands of coach Kim Sang-sik, there are still midfielders like Viet Anh (1.85 m), Thanh Chung (1.82 m), Thanh Binh (1.83 m) with good physiques. He has striker Nguyen Tien Linh (1.80 m) who is a very good leader.

The fact that the Vietnamese team has not exploited fixed situations well mainly comes from the coordination of the entire team in these situations. Vietnamese players, when participating in attacks in fixed situations, have not received really good passes from the players in charge of free kicks.

In addition, the current Vietnamese team’s free kick experts such as Quang Hai, Hoang Duc, and Hai Long have not promoted their best performance in set plays. Quang Hai in particular has not been used at maximum capacity: he only played about the last 30 minutes in the match against Laos, and was replaced after the first half of the match against the Philippines. That is, the most creative midfielder with the best free kick ability in Vietnamese football today has only played a total of less than 2 matches, after the past 3 matches of the entire team.

This may be something that will change in the next stage of the tournament, when coach Kim Sang-sik has realized that Quang Hai is the player best able to resolve the deadlock for the Vietnamese team. And one of the most effective ways to resolve the deadlock is to take advantage of fixed balls. When the match is in a tense situation, with just one successful free kick, the Vietnamese team can completely turn the situation around.