Hanoi Club goes downhill: The AFF Cup champions are fading!

Hanoi Club collapsed again in Hang Day

The 0-1 defeat to HAGL on the evening of January 24 did not eliminate Hanoi Club from the V-League championship race. Coach Le Duc Tuan and his team are only 5 points behind Thanh Hoa, while the season is still more than half way through. However, the Hanoi team’s performance in the last 3 matches, especially in last night’s loss, was below expectations.

It only took Hanoi Club 7 minutes to… shoot themselves in the foot with an immature tackle that led to Vu Dinh Hai’s red card. The player born in 2000 has played for the Hanoi team in the V-League since last season. Especially when coach Daiki Iwamasa takes charge, Dinh Hai can play regularly as a defender (total 22 matches in V-League 2023 – 2024). However, that is still not enough for a player who is 25 years old this year, but has very little experience. That incompetence was shown in the situation of hitting the ball with the bottom of his shoe straight into Van Son’s ankle, causing Dinh Hai to “take a shower early”.

The use of inexperienced faces like Dinh Hai was within the expectations of the Hanoi Club’s leadership. Importantly, the key players of the capital’s football team can shoulder the collective burden. In the defeat against HAGL, the opponent had just lost the last 3 away matches before “marching” to Hang Day last night, the answer was clear.

Despite fielding a squad with five AFF Cup 2024 champions such as Do Duy Manh, Nguyen Thanh Chung, Pham Xuan Manh, Nguyen Hai Long and Pham Tuan Hai, Hanoi Club still could not overwhelm the struggling HAGL team. in the middle of the table. Even the national players were the cause of failure. Duy Manh made a clumsy foul in the penalty area, causing the host to receive a penalty. And Tuan Hai was the result of a penalty kick that bounced off the bar in the 90+11 minute, directly taking away the last chance for Hanoi Club to celebrate Tet with 1 point in their pocket.

The paradox of Hanoi Club is that although there are many players who won the 2024 AFF Cup, Mr. Le Duc Tuan’s team lacks form after the return of domestic football. Hanoi Club drew 0-0 for 90 minutes and was eliminated from the round of 16 of the National Cup by Dong Thap. After a 2-0 victory over Da Nang, the Hanoi team returned to a difficult spiral with their first defeat against HAGL at home after many years.

‘Difficult door’ for coach Le Duc Tuan

In fact, owning many national players is not necessarily… a favorable thing for Hanoi Club. Duy Manh, Thanh Chung, Hai Long and Tuan Hai have all trained and played 8 matches in less than a month.

The series of “mountain climbing” journeys on the Southeast Asian playground has eroded the physical strength of many players. The proof is that when returning from the AFF Cup, Vietnamese players only played well, even making mistakes.

However, the instability of the Hanoi team does not come from this factor. Since the beginning of the season, Hanoi Club has not demonstrated the philosophy of control and overwhelming attack like during the peak period (2016 – 2022). The personality and training methods of “captain” Le Duc Tuan have not been effective. The Hanoi team still tries to control the ball and push the team to attack, but the quality and playing ideas are no longer as abundant as before. Only 13 goals after 11 matches (an average of 1.18 goals/match), ranking 6th in the V-League, with a moderate number of opportunities created, is what the Hanoi coaching staff must study. more.

However, we cannot blame coach Le Duc Tuan. When Van Quyet and Hung Dung are about to step over to the other side of the slope, Duy Manh, Thanh Chung, Tuan Hai or Hai Long are stable but have not yet broken through, Hanoi Club is having transition problems. The poor quality of foreign players and lack of impressive young talents are obstacles that are slowing down the capital’s team.

Hanoi Club still has time to correct mistakes, but Van Quyet and his teammates need to act quickly. Coach Le Duc Tuan’s anger needs to be “transformed” into efforts to help the team overcome difficulties, instead of just getting a yellow card like yesterday’s match.