Xuan Son and the Vietnamese team returned home and said boldly: The top scorer is also good…

Xuan Son shares his feelings

Coach Kim Sang-sik, Xuan Son, Van Toan, Quang Hai,… were in the first group of the Vietnamese team to arrive at Noi Bai airport at noon on December 27.

Present at Changi Airport (Singapore), the team members were all in a comfortable and happy mood after the 2-0 win against the host team Singapore in the first leg of the AFF Cup semi-finals.

Reply to Newspaper reporter Footballtalking about the prospect of becoming the tournament’s top scorer, Xuan Son said: “In the immediate future, I still think more about the overall results of the team. But the title of top scorer sounds interesting, right? I will score many more goals for the Vietnamese team in the next matches. Let’s wait and see,” Xuan Son shared.

The semi-final first leg on Singapore’s Jalan Besar artificial turf field was very unpredictable. Although Singapore had superior possession of the ball, it was completely inferior in terms of scoring opportunities compared to the Vietnamese team. One of the most controversial points is VAR’s too-active intervention, including Xuan Son’s beautiful shot into the net – which if recognized would be a masterpiece. In the end, the Vietnamese team still got what they needed, which was a victory with 2 safe goals away from home thanks to the shining last minutes of the duo Xuan Son – Tien Linh.

The second leg at Viet Tri’s home field (Phu Tho) is predicted to be easier when the team has the support of tens of thousands of home spectators and can play on a familiar natural grass field with a comfortable mentality because had 2 pocket tables. However, coach Kim Sang-sik and his students certainly cannot be subjective because we have seen how the Vietnamese team struggled during the 90 minutes of official competition in the last semi-final first leg.

Sharing after the match, coach Kim Sang-sik also admitted that the whole team encountered many difficulties and expressed his opinion on the referee’s VAR situations:

“I thank the fans who traveled from home to cheer for the Vietnamese team. I would like to dedicate this victory to all the fans. We tried to adapt to the weather and field conditions. The first half was difficult. However, we got back on track with these adjustments, giving us a lot of advantage for the return match and now we are ready to deny the goal Xuan Son is indeed unlucky for us We all have to obey and respect the referees. They ran a successful match,” Mr. Kim said.

The team needs to learn from experience

The two teams, Singapore and Vietnam, were both commented to have had a match full of effort.Singapore team is considered to have a team of players with good physique and strong ability in high-ball plays. Coach Kim said he felt lucky that the team did not concede any goals in the match. In addition, the Korean strategist also expressed satisfaction with Dinh Trieu’s performance. However, he admitted that no player is perfect and the whole team will need to learn from individual mistakes in the last match.

“Although there were difficult times, we overcame them. This is a worthy victory for the whole team. I went to Son’s side and comforted him after the enthusiastic and courageous match. Son told me about The goal was rejected, that it was a valid tackle, the ball touched the chest, not the hand. It’s unfortunate that the referee denied the goal after consulting VAR. However, we all have to respect the referee .We will try to play well in the second leg of the semi-finals to reach our goal winning the championship like 6 years ago. It won’t be easy, but we will be highly focused,” said coach Kim Sang-sik.

As for the Singapore team, strategist Ogura Tsutomu said that the biggest difference between the two teams in the last match was that the Vietnamese team took advantage of the opportunity better.

“In the last minutes of extra time, we lost by 2 goals. Football turned out to not be a game limited to just 90 minutes. Vietnam and Singapore both had opportunities, but Vietnam took advantage and punished Singapore. This match also had a lot of drama, I felt like watching a movie. After VAR, the goal was denied and then the penalty took too long, nearly 15 minutes of extra time, which made the Singapore players fatigue and loss of concentration.

My players also lack the experience to prevent a second goal. I told the students after the first half that if we can keep the score 0-0 at the end of the second half, we will be confident before the second leg of the semi-finals. The most important thing now is that the players must focus on recovery to regain their fitness in time for the return match. The semi-finals are still going on, not over yet. We still have a chance to reach the finals,” Mr. Ogura said.