In a few days, the Vietnamese team will enter the 2024 Southeast Asian Championship with an away match against Laos. After that, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team will rest from the second match of Group B and will have to wait nearly a week before playing their first home match. This is a very important match for the Indonesian team, because the result can be the foundation for the race for the top spot in the group.
However, as is known, the Vietnam team will not play their home matches in the group stage at My Dinh Stadium but at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho). The reason is that My Dinh Stadium will host the music event "Anh trai say hi", not just 1 but 2 nights - December 7 and 9. With the presence of tens of thousands of spectators, the grass field will certainly be affected and that is the reason why the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) decided to register the team to play at Viet Tri Stadium - after the match against Indonesia on December 15, the match against Myanmar on December 21.
The match against Myanmar could also be the deciding moment for the “Golden Star Warriors” to qualify for the next round with which position - first or second in the group. If they win Group B, the team will play the first leg away and then play the second leg on December 29. In the case of second in Group B, Quang Hai and his teammates will play the first leg at home on December 27.
That means, after the “Anh trai say hi” event on December 9, the stadium organizers will have about 3 weeks to take care of the grass if they want to be ready to welcome the team back to compete. But unfortunately, in the coming time, weather conditions will be a big challenge to bring the grass back to perfect condition to ensure the organization of international matches.
Of course, VFF will have a specific inspection and assessment to decide whether to rent My Dinh Stadium for the semi-finals or not. If the Vietnam team performs well and has good results in the group stage, fans will be more excited to head to the semi-finals. And at that time, the capacity of Viet Tri Stadium will not be enough to meet the demand.
There are other stadiums available for rent, but clearly, fans would rather see their team play on their “home turf”.
