A story that is not old
Vietnam won 2-1 against Cambodia, but the concerns of fans and experts partly became a reality.
Nguyen Hai Long shone to break the deadlock but came from a set piece. The second goal came from a mistake in Cambodia's defense.
Due to the nature of a friendly match, the Vietnamese team did not play to the best of their ability, not speeding up the match to the maximum. Even coach Kim Sang-sik is willing to take two very important players such as Hoang Duc, Quang Hai and then Hai Long off the field.
With the loss of players on duty as glue, it is easy to understand why the Vietnamese team played significantly erratically in the second half. But the biggest problem for the "Golden Star Warriors" is the final stage.
In the first half, Quang Hai and Tuan Hai took turns playing as center forward and could not create opportunities for themselves. In the second half, Tien Linh, who had not fully recovered from his injury, also played very deadlocked.
The image of the Vietnamese team is now returning to form like the first matches at the ASEAN Cup 2024 without Xuan Son. Coach Kim Sang-sik and his team are not bad, but they are not good enough to solve the match.
How to temporarily "forget" Xuan Son?
The problem was found to be too difficult for coach Kim Sang-sik by Nguyen Xuan Son. Unlike the club level, the national team has difficulty with resources to replace the stars.
For example, when Xuan Son was injured, the Vietnamese team had no way to fill the void left by this striker.
This is in contrast to the club level. In Thanh Hoa, coach Popov no longer has Rimario, Bruno Cunha immediately found Lucas Ribamar. However, the transfer is simply to pay and sign a contract, while the player competing for the national team is different.
For Mr. Kim Sang-sik at this time, only by creating a system with many scoring exploding points can the Vietnamese team temporarily overcome difficulties.
Talking to Lao Dong, commentator Quang Tung said: "Of course, the absence of a quality player like Xuan Son has caused the Vietnamese team to lose a support, becoming more competitive because he is a 'goal machine' and can break any 'performance'.
Along with the fact that Tien Linh is not in the best physical condition and condition, the attack of the Vietnamese team makes many people even more worried".
Therefore, coach Kim Sang-sik's task is to find the inspiration to play football from the players on the attack line, while creating suitable tactical pieces to be able to attack comprehensively and bring the ball into the opponent's penalty area more smoothly.
The Vietnam team will face the Laos team in the opening match of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, taking place at 7:30 p.m. on May 25 at Binh Duong Stadium.
