Vietnam U20 coach: 'Discipline is the key when winning against Australia'
"Congratulations to the players for having a good game and achieving their goals," Tuan said at a press conference after the 1-0 win at Istiqlol. "Besides great spirit, law-abiding and disciplined play were other factors that helped us beat Australia."
Before the ball rolling, Vietnam was underestimated than Australia - a team that owned many quality players such as striker Archie Jets Goodwin, Brazilian-born winger Bernardo Oliveira, or a quartet playing abroad including Matthew Dench (England), Joshua Rawlins (Netherlands), Jing Reec (Denmark) and Gabriel Popovic (Croatia). This team has partly shown its strength when winning in the qualifying round.
In fact, the students of coach Hoang Anh Tuan were also inferior when they entered the game. But a somewhat unexpected goal from Nguyen Quoc Viet's long shot in the 6th minute created an important turning point, helping Vietnam to boost their spirits and play an effective counter-attack to successfully defend the score 1-0.
"We have thoroughly studied Australia, noticing their strengths and weaknesses," Mr. Tuan revealed. "I told the players that the lessons from the friendly match against Dubai City on February 23 were the basis for the team to be ready to play Australia. The key to victory is the attitude at the start of the game and the discipline. Vietnam's strengths, and the team will try to build and promote in the next matches."
According to the Khanh Hoa military leader, previewing the video tapes about Australia also helps Vietnamese players confidently neutralize dangerous balls. "Australia may have a tall body, but it's awkward. They play a lot of highball, so the players have prepared an anti-balloon plan. I told the team to limit the opponent's forte - long pass, competition. The ball is high from both sides. Therefore, Australia today had very few balls from the side to endanger the Vietnamese goal," he added.
Coach Hoang Anh Tuan once created a miracle, when he helped Vietnam's 11-a-side football to be present at the World Cup for the first time. In the group stage of the 2016 Asian U19 Championship, he and his students won tickets to the knockout round despite having to face three strong opponents: North Korea, Iraq and the UAE. The team then continued to shock when defeating host Bahrain to enter the semi-finals, and also won tickets to the U20 FIFA World Cup in 2017.
In the second round, Vietnam met Qatar on March 4. "We have two days off to recover to prepare to meet Qatar. To go further, the players must play with the same discipline and spirit as the Australian match," emphasized Mr. Tuan.
