AFF Cup: Vietnam team and the index are both encouraging and worrying

The “explosion points” of the Vietnamese team

After 3 matches in AFF Cup 2024, the Vietnamese team has scored 6 goals. The players who scored goals were Nguyen Hai Long, Nguyen Tien Linh, Nguyen Van Toan, Nguyen Van Vi, Nguyen Quang Hai and Doan Ngoc Tan. All three lines: striker, midfielder and defender contribute to the goals.

In addition, the scoring style of the Vietnamese team is also diverse. The goals appeared from many different scenarios: long passes from home field (Bui Tien Dung passed to Hai Long), good pressing to steal the ball in the opponent’s field to score (Quang Hai assisted Tien Linh, Van Toan), coordinating in the middle (Quang Hai’s table) and fixed situations (Van Vi and Ngoc Tan’s table).

When there are many players who know how to score goals, with many different options, the Vietnamese team can make it difficult for opponents to analyze and evaluate. When operating, “Golden Star Warriors” can also create surprises. This will be an advantage for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team, but in reality, everything is not just “rosy”.

Coach Kim Sang-sik faces worries

The Vietnamese team has many players who know how to score goals, which is good. However, the strikers in the hands of coach Kim Sang-sik, especially the spearhead Tien Linh, do not have much space to play. To be more precise, the striker of Binh Duong Club did not have enough ball supply to finish and score. That is the reason why he is lagging behind in the top scorer race with opponents such as Shawal Anuar (Singapore, 4 goals); Patrik Gustavsson, Teerasak Poeiphimai, Suphanat Muenta (Thailand, same 3 goals).

According to statistics from the AFF Cup 2024 organizing committee, Tien Linh only had 8 shots. The two main strikers of the Thai team, Gustavsson and Suphanat, made 16 and 11 shots, respectively. Vi Hao, a striker who started 2 matches in this tournament, only had 6 shots.

Coach Kim Sang-sik needs the strikers to maintain sharpness and confidence in finishing shots. To do this, they must get a lot of shots to feel good. From there, a new goal appeared. But up to this point, Tien Linh, Vi Hao or even Van Toan have not had many opportunities. That’s worrying.

Part of the reason this happened is that coach Kim Sang-sik changed and mixed up quite a lot in the midfield as well as the attack. In the match against Laos, Hoang Duc played the lowest in the midfield, Ngoc Tan played box-to-box and Hai Long moved quite freely. In the match against Indonesia, Quang Hai and Ngoc Tan played as a central midfield pair, allowing Hoang Duc to play high and play comfortably like a “number 10”. In the confrontation with the Philippines, the midfielder pair Ngoc Tan and Quang Hai were kept intact, playing behind the striker trio of Vi Hao, Dinh Thanh Binh, and Chau Ngoc Quang. That is the reason why the Vietnamese team’s front-line players do not have the connection to create well-coordinated situations.

With the semi-finals approaching, coach Kim Sang-sik doesn’t have much time left to experiment. He needs to “finish” the framework of the Vietnamese team’s front line. And the Korean strategist also needs to calculate more because since the match against Myanmar, Nguyen Xuan Son has been eligible to play.