Over the past two weeks, Vietnamese fans have continuously witnessed the matches of Hanoi Police and Nam Dinh in the Southeast Asian Cup C1 and AFC Champions League Two. In general, the performance of V.League representatives cannot be said to have met the expectations of fans.
Hanoi Police Club owns a series of national players, many quality foreign players such as Alan, Artur, Vitao or Hugo Gomes. However, they drew 2-2 away to Beijing Guoan, who used only a reserve team.
At home to host Cebu FC (Philippines), they struggled to get 3 points with a goal in the 89th minute by Cao Pendant Quang Vinh.
Meanwhile, Nam Dinh had no difficulty in defeating Ratchaburi (Thailand) in the Asian Cup but had some... luck to defeat Svay Rieng (Cambodia) in the Southeast Asian playground.
The problems of Nam Dinh and Hanoi Police are different. With the Police team, they showed their ability to control the match, with a concise and clear playing style.
However, the foreign players of Hanoi Police have not shown a big difference when stepping out to sea. Alan or Leo Artur can meet the requirements in the V.League but are basically only mid-range players in the international arena.
In addition, the unbelievable opportunities missed by domestic players such as Le Van Do, Le Pham Thanh Long, Nguyen Dinh Bac surprised Vietnamese fans. It is these wasteful situations that put them in a difficult position and the results have not satisfied the fans.
The story in Nam Dinh has more to say. The team from Thanh Nam understands that their domestic players are not enough to write big dreams. Even Tran Nguyen Manh - Nam Dinh's top-class domestic player was replaced by Caique Santos - Brazilian goalkeeper.
With more investment from stars such as Percy Tau - former Brighton player, Mitchell Dijks - who played for Bologna... Nam Dinh played very poorly against Svay Rieng. When Mahmoud Eid received a red card in the second half, Nam Dinh was pressured by the opponent and almost had to accept a draw at home.
Over the years, Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Hanoi and Binh Duong have left their mark in continental tournaments. But the mainstay of these teams comes from domestic players rather than foreign players.
Now, Nam Dinh and Hanoi Police want to surpass the success threshold of the Vietnamese team when participating in the Asian tournament. They need to invest more strongly, more securely and patiently to wait for the breakthrough.
