On the evening of January 2, the Vietnamese team won 2-1 against Thailand in the first leg of the 2024 ASEAN Cup final at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho). Nguyen Xuan Son scored two goals to bring an advantage to coach Kim Sang-sik's team before traveling to Thailand to play the second leg of the final on January 5.
After the match, Thailand's leading sports newspaper Siam Sport analyzed the defeat of the "War Elephants". In addition to the reasons believed to be due to individual mistakes or personnel arrangements, Siam Sport also praised the tactics of Vietnam coach Kim Sang-sik.
“Of course, the brightest star of the Vietnamese team in this match was Nguyen Xuan Son, who scored two goals against Thailand. However, the one who deserves the praise is coach Kim Sang-sik. The Korean coach was very skillful in coming up with tactics and making reasonable substitutions to gain an advantage in the first leg of the final,” wrote Siam Sport.
Thailand's leading sports site further analyzed: "Coach Kim Sang-sik asked his players to play with patience and discipline to find mistakes from the War Elephants to exploit. In the first half of the match, the Korean strategist saved energy for midfielder Quang Hai, while his teammates continuously put pressure on the Thai defense. With extremely accurate passing ability, it was the former Pau FC player who made the pass to contribute to bringing the opening goal for the Vietnamese team, opening the way for the victory that followed."
Also according to Siam Sport, coach Kim Sang-sik always maintains a calm attitude and is always calm at all times during the journey at the ASEAN Cup 2024 to be able to make the most reasonable tactical calculations for the Vietnamese team.
Despite losing 1-2 to Vietnam in the first leg, Siam Sport is still optimistic about the "War Elephants"'s ability to win in the second leg at Rajamangala Stadium.
“Losing 1-2 is not too difficult a task for the Thai team to turn the situation around. In the past, at the AFF Cup 2016 (now the ASEAN Cup), the ‘War Elephants’ lost 1-2 to Indonesia in the first leg of the final, then won 2-0 at home to win the championship in a spectacular way. Or in the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, we also came from behind to defeat the Philippines after losing in the first leg. January 5 will be a historic day for Thai football,” Siam Sport emphasized.
The second leg final between Thailand and Vietnam will take place at 8:00 p.m. on January 5 at Rajamangala Stadium.
