Singapore - Vietnam: Occupy the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2022?
Singapore - Vietnam: 19:30 Friday, December 30, on MetaSports.
Vietnam has many personnel advantages when entering the AFF Cup 2022. Coach Park Hang-seo has summoned all the best students, including midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai, who is playing in France for Pau FC. Meanwhile, Thailand did not have three pillars Chanathip Songkrasin, Supachok Sarachat and Thanawat Suengchitthawon because foreign clubs refused to release people. Malaysia suffered a bigger loss when coach Kim Pan-gon had to choose two solutions because the powerful club Johor Darul Ta'zim - the last nine consecutive national championships - did not allow players to join the team because of disagreements. Singapore also did not maintain the strength as at the AFF Cup 2020 - the tournament they reached the semi-finals, when they lost the number one striker Ikhsan Fandi and midfielder Adam Swandi to injury.
With a better force, Vietnam quickly showed its position as the number one candidate. While the opponents went through difficult matches, Coach Park's army gently reached the top of the table with a 6-0 victory on the field of Laos and 3-0 against Malaysia despite having to play short of people in the first half because Nguyen Van Toan's red card.
If there are three more points in the away match of Singapore, Vietnam will enter the semi-finals one round early. Doing this, Coach Park can widen the calculation line at the end of the group stage with Myanmar, to choose an opponent in the semi-finals, and can give some key players a rest or test new options. for the knockout stage.
Singapore's advantage is playing on artificial turf. However, Coach Park said that Vietnam is not afraid of this because his players also have experience playing on this field due to being trained at a young age and most recently playing at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines. Regarding the audience, Vietnam is a guest but can receive strong cheers. Thousands of Vietnamese people living and working in Singapore soon bought tickets to enter the yard to fire up Mr. Park's teachers and students.
The head-to-head record is also bringing a psychological advantage to Vietnam. Under the guidance of Mr. Park, the team always won Singapore in confrontations.
Coach Park will have to adjust the attack personnel compared to the victory against Malaysia due to Van Toan's suspension. During the training session on the afternoon of December 29, the Korean leader talked for a long time with the doctor and Nguyen Quang Hai. He assessed the 25-year-old midfielder's recovery from injury, and is likely to use him from the start. Quang Hai was injured in the first half of the victory against Laos and recovered quickly. Coach Park threw him in at the end of the second half against Malaysia to regain the feeling of the ball, and he left his mark with an unseen pass for Nguyen Hoang Duc to escape to make the score 3-0.
Before launching Quang Hai back into the starting line-up, Coach Park needs to do psychology for him. The Hanoi midfielder was injured in the match against Singapore, also on the artificial turf, and then had to sit out in the journey of his teammates to win the gold medal at the 31st SEA Games in the Philippines.
Singapore expects a lot from long and high balls. However, their loss of Ikhsan Fandi will greatly affect the attack power. Vietnam is also not too afraid of the ball when goalkeeper Dang Van Lam, full-back Doan Van Hau or central defenders Que Ngoc Hai and Nguyen Thanh Chung all have outstanding physiques, approximately 1.80 m.
Vietnam: Van Lam, Tien Dung, Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh; Van Hau, Tan Tai, Hung Dung, Hoang Duc, Van Duc, Quang Hai, Tien Linh.
Singapore: Zaiful Nizam, Hariss Harun, Shakir Hamzah, Mohan Kumar, Hafiz Nor, Shah Shahiran, Shahdan Sulaiman, Van Huizen, Ilhan Fandi, Shawal Anuar, Faris Ramli.
