Two “accidents” caused U23 Vietnam to be divided by U23 Thailand

U23 Vietnam and unforgettable moments when coach Gong Oh-kyun debuted

Before U23 Vietnam entered the opening match of the AFC U23 Championship 2022 against Thailand U23 on the evening of June 2, Vietnamese fans had to receive bad news when many pillars were infected with food poisoning and were not in good shape. best to go to the main football field.

That is midfielder Thanh Binh (not registered to play), midfielders Ly Cong Hoang Anh, Cong Den, Hai Long…

Looking at the innovation of Korean coach Gong Oh-kyun in arranging the starting lineup with both young midfielders born in 2003 who still lacked international experience, Van Khang and Van Truong, many people could not help but worry. .

But in fact, when he entered the game, coach Gong Oh-kyun’s way of “deploying the army” made the fans feel secure. A reasonable distance from the squad, midfielder Luong Duy Cuong was pushed a little higher to kick the “anchor” midfielder, a bridge between the defenders Tien Long (right) – Viet Anh – Nham Manh Dung – Tuan Tai (left) with Van Khang – Van Truong above and higher up is the trio of strikers Minh Binh (right) – Danh Trung (the spearhead striker) – Van Do (left).

The excitement appeared as soon as the match with nearly 30 seconds passed when U23 Vietnam pressed strongly, making U23 Thailand “startled”. Midfielder Jonathan Khemdee (playing for OB Club – Denmark) made the mistake of passing the ball to Tuan Tai’s foot.

In the same position, Tuan Tai made an accurate cross for Nham Manh Dung to head beautifully to score the only goal to help Vietnam U23 beat Thailand U23 and win the 31st SEA Games gold medal; But this time it’s different…

It is clear that Coach Gong Oh-kyun has encouraged the students to have more daring and romantic handling phases instead of being too realistic like under Mr. Park. A little more diagonal push in and a decisive finish from Tuan Tai from about 25m brought the ball to Jonathan Khemdee’s arm to open the scoring.

The sudden loss of the match very early made U23 Thailand, which had not been able to catch up with the match, became more and more out of tune.

Their highly rated midfield with names playing in Europe such as Thanawat Suengchitthawon (Leicester City, England), Achitpol Keereerom (FC Augsburg II, Germany), Chayapipat Supunpasuch (Estoril B, Portugal) does not. can prevail against the closeness of U23 Vietnam when changing its status to 4-1-4-1. The fact that there are often 5 people in the middle of the field, working hard to cover each other has helped U23 Vietnam make U23 Thailand fall into a deadlock.

In the 28th minute, Coach Worrawoot had to make 2 changes in the hope of creating a balance, before thinking about the possibility of a mutation: Ben Davis (playing for Oxford United, England), Wanchat came on to replace him. Channarong Promsrikaew, Chayapipat Supunpasuch.

And six minutes later, it was Ben Davis who shot from outside the box in a rare opportunity with enough space to properly adjust the aim. The ball went with good force but not dangerous, unfortunately, goalkeeper Van Toan missed the ball, then lost his direction to let the ball fly into the net in the surprise of his teammates.

An “accident” can be said to be a lifelong memory for Van Toan, especially when over the years he has had success at the U23 level with 2 SEA Games gold medals, especially keeping a clean sheet at SEA Games 31.

Right after that, goalkeeper Quan Van Chuan entered the field to replace Van Toan. The television camera panned to coach Gong Oh-kyun’s calm face and an encouraging pat on the head Van Chuan.

Coach Gong Oh-kyun and the perfect follow-up to Mr. Park

It seems that 45 minutes of the first half is enough for coach Gong Oh-kyun to understand that U23 Thailand is nothing to worry about and with consecutive changes, U23 Vietnam has changed its status to 4-4-2, kick with 2 real strikers, Van Tung (who came into the field at the beginning of the second half to replace Van Do) and Nham Manh Dung (returned to the striker position, Luong Duy Cuong stepped down to play a central defender pairing with Viet Anh).

In the last 25 minutes of the match, U23 Vietnam played with the central midfield duo Hai Long (replacing Van Khang in the 58th minute) – Cong Den (instead of Van Truong in the 64th minute). The left midfielder is Dinh Lam (replacing Danh Trung in the 58th minute), Minh Binh still kicks the right midfielder.

The match was tense and Thailand U23 was the “blood” team that won more when trying to push the offensive line up. And when goalkeeper Van Chuan and U23 Vietnam’s defense played closely, the opportunity came to U23 Vietnam from a seemingly harmless attack.

Only 3 players U23 Vietnam participated in the attack, Tuan Tai – Minh Binh and the right side in the penalty area was Van Tung in the circle of 5-6 blue shirt shadows.

And it was Tuan Tai’s sudden and delicate handling that turned the seemingly simple ball into extremely… complicated with Thailand’s U23. Once again the entire Thailand U23 defense stood and watched the curve “drawn” by Tuan Tai to find the right place for Van Tung to catch a beautiful volley to raise the score to 2-1.

Sitting on the training bench, in that moment, Coach Worrawoot must have understood that the time when he led Thailand U22 to defeat U22 Vietnam 3-0 in the 2017 SEA Games group stage was really long gone!

About 20 minutes left of the match, Coach Worrawoot tried to turn the situation around with the changes of people. But it was not until the first minute of injury time, when U23 Vietnam had only 10 people left on the field when Le Minh Binh (who was hurt from the situation of trying to “make a wall” for Tuan Tai to create an assist for Van Tung to score) could not stay longer. okay, had to leave the field on a stretcher 90 minutes; U23 Thailand just got the final equalizer 2-2.

The one who headed close to the wall to keep 1 point for Thailand U23 is striker Suphanat (No. 17). Splitting the points after the opening match, U23 Vietnam will have to try to get a point against the most rated opponent in the table, U23 Korea in a duel at 8 pm on June 5 to maintain the belief of passing the group stage.