In the press conference after the match in round 3 of V.League 2024-2025 (September 30), coach Velizar Popov of Thanh Hoa club was surprised to learn that his team will continue to play round 4 on October 4, instead of October 19 like Hanoi Police and Nam Dinh.
The dense competition puts Thanh Hoa at a disadvantage, especially when the players do not have enough physical strength and fitness after many days of traveling and playing continuously.
Before that, the Thanh team had just gone through a rather difficult schedule. On September 20, they had a trip to play against Cong An Ha Noi at Hang Day Stadium in round 2 of V.League.
On September 22, Mr. Popov and his team traveled from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and then 1 day later continued to fly to Terengganu (Malaysia) to compete in round 2 of the Southeast Asian Cup C1 (September 25).
After the match, on September 26, they returned to Kuala Lumpur. On September 27, the team flew from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City, then transferred to Tho Xuan Airport (Thanh Hoa), before playing against Hai Phong in round 3 of V.League (September 30).
Thus, in just 11 days, Thanh Hoa club spent 4 days traveling (5 flights), 3 days competing and only 4 days to recover and practice to prepare for the next matches.
According to the scheduled schedule, tomorrow (October 2), the Thanh team will continue to fly to Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh) to prepare for round 4 of V.League 2024-2025.
This will greatly affect the physical strength and performance of the players when they take the field. Thanh Hoa's pillars such as Thanh Long, Luiz Antonio, Yago Ramos, Ngoc Tan, A Mit, Van Thang, Thai Son, Viet Tu... do not even have enough time to rest to recharge.
Coach Popov only has a few quality reserve players such as Quoc Phuong, Nguyen Hoang, Ngoc Ha, Thanh Nam, Manh Hung... Therefore, it is very difficult to rotate the squad to meet high professional requirements in matches.
Another team that also competes in both the V.League and the Southeast Asian Cup C1, Hanoi Police, is luckier. They get to play 3 consecutive matches (2 V.League matches, 1 Southeast Asian Cup C1 match) at home, which somewhat ensures their physical strength.
In addition, the match between Hanoi and Hanoi Police in round 4 of V.League 2024-2025 was also postponed to October 19 instead of October 4, because Hang Day Stadium is used to host the international women's football tournament from October 3 to October 7.
