Despite falling into an unfavorable group, the fact that Vietnam National Team was eliminated from the 2024 Asian Cup after only 2 matches has surprised many audiences. It is important to know that, nearly 5 years ago, Vietnam National Team reached the quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup with a group of young players, among the youngest in the tournament. That’s why the Asian media felt disappointed with the performance of the “Golden Star Warriors” in their defeat against Indonesia.
Sports News Nate page believes that Vietnam national team is going backwards
Specifically, Sports News Nate (Korea) page commented on the second consecutive loss of the Vietnamese team at the continental tournament and was quoted by Soha:
Korean media always mention former captain Park Hang-seo when talking about coach Troussier. Photo: Yonhap.
“Vietnam national team was defeated by Indonesian national team. Under the guidance of coach Shin Tae-yong, Indonesian national team showed fast, strong pressure and delicate passes. On the other hand, Vietnamese national team could not create any pressure. As pressured as under coach Park Hang-seo, the Vietnamese national team’s attack also showed a disappointing performance.
When Vietnam National Team lost to Indonesia National Team, the image of the big brother team of Southeast Asia disappeared. The glorious image of reaching the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup disappeared like an illusion. That makes Vietnamese football fans unable to help but remember the magic of Coach Park Hang-seo.”
The Korean newspaper added: “Coach Troussier, Mr. Park’s successor, has not achieved any results in more than a year. Obviously, coach Troussier’s achievements in the Vietnam national team cannot be compared with coach Park Hang-seo.”
As mentioned before, Coach Shin Tae-yong’s career could have been much different in Southeast Asia if he had not encountered Coach Park Hang-seo. Mr. Shin was completely stuck on how to win against Vietnam under Coach Park Hang-seo, from playing ugly to doing many psychological warfare games on social networks and learning tricks to gain an advantage in the future. lacking the spirit of fair play.
The controversy happened before the 2022 AFF Cup semi-final second leg, coach Shin Tae-yong posted a series of clips on social networks to put pressure on Doan Van Hau and the referees. He also told Marc Klok to pretend to be attacked when marking Doan Van Hau. But Indonesia’s national team still couldn’t change their defeat when they lost 0-2 to Vietnam and were completely helpless in how they played.
Coach Shin Tae-yong enjoyed the joy of winning against the Vietnam national team for the first time. Photo: AFC.
Everything changed on the evening of January 19. Coach Shin Tae-yong celebrated his first goal against the Vietnam national team for the first time and enjoyed the joy of victory. He won the battle so his speech was pleasant, not as harsh as in the past. The former coach of the Korean national team said that Vietnam won thanks to luck.
In fact, coach Shin Tae-yong has a reasonable strategy, stifling the midfield of the Vietnamese team most of the time. Vietnam team is better than Indonesia team in terms of ball control time (57% compared to 43), but has 6 fewer shots and has 1 red card. Indonesia’s victory came from Nguyen Thanh Binh’s mistake, but the results reflected the superiority of the way of play compared to Vietnam National Team.
The above number is in complete contrast to the semi-final second leg of the AFF Cup 2022. Indonesia’s team was better than Vietnam’s in terms of ball control time (53% compared to 47) but did not have a single shot on target. Vietnam easily defeated Indonesia 2-0 thanks to coach Park Hang-seo’s more reasonable and skilled fighting style than coach Shin Tae-yong.
Coach Park Hang-seo’s talent was demonstrated specifically by his results against coach Shin Tae-yong. Vietnam team won twice with scores of 4-0 and 2-0, two draws 0-0. U23 Vietnam defeated U23 Indonesia 3-0.
Coach Park Hang-seo rarely speaks like he preaches about theory or far-fetched goals. He concluded about the coaching profession: “As a coach, don’t just talk, prove it with results.”
Under Mr. Park, Vietnamese football’s fate completely changed against Indonesia. Vietnam had 11 unbeaten matches, before receiving two consecutive defeats under coach Troussier.