Ho Chi Minh City Club has another tough season competing for relegation

Ho Chi Minh City Club is struggling to collect points.

In round 18, Ho Chi Minh City FC had a tense 1-1 draw against defending champion Nam Dinh, at a high price of Dao Quoc Gia's red card, along with 5 other yellow cards. A hard-won but precious point for the team nicknamed "Red Battleship", in a situation that is being heated up by the increasingly unpredictable relegation race. In the last 7 matches, coach Phung Thanh Phuong and his team had exactly 1 win, 4 draws and 2 losses, earning only 7 points. This slow pace has left them only 5 points behind the second-to-last team Binh Dinh (16 points) - the position that will have to play in the play-off. At this time, Ho Chi Minh City FC (21 points) is in a group of closely-knit clubs including HAGL (21 points), Hai Phong (21 points), Quang Nam (20 points), SLNA (18 points). Obviously, coach Phung Thanh Phuong and his team really need a win to temporarily break away, in the situation where the two teams at the bottom of the rankings have recently unexpectedly gained points. However, from desire to implementation is not easy, because they currently have a rather mediocre attack.

Ho Chi Minh City Club (middle) is making efforts to soon complete its relegation goal.

Photo: Kha Hoa

After 18 rounds, Ho Chi Minh City FC has only scored 15 goals, more than the 3 lowest ranked teams in the rankings at the moment. That is also the reason why Ho Chi Minh City FC always plays with great determination and passion but has received 9 draws since the beginning of the season. In such difficult circumstances, Coach Phung Thanh Phuong and his team will have to play their second consecutive away match, this time as guests at Hang Day Stadium of Hanoi Police Club (CAHN). Remember, Coach Mano Polking's team may not play very consistently, but they always play very well at home with 5 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss, while Ho Chi Minh City FC only won 1, drew 5 and lost 3 away matches. It will not be surprising if the "Red Battleship" once again chooses to play defensively to return home with 1 valuable point.

THE DREAM OF SUCCESS IS STILL FAR AWAY

There was a time when Ho Chi Minh City FC was a force in the V-League, during the season they competed fiercely with Hanoi FC and ended the 2019 season as runners-up thanks to the strategic talent of coach Chung Hae-seong. Unfortunately, they could not take advantage of that great opportunity to become a strong competitive team. On the contrary, the financial crisis caused Ho Chi Minh City FC to struggle to survive with a tight budget for the next few seasons. This season, the economic situation has been more positive, while the club also appointed former CEO of Sabeco, Mr. Bennett Neo, as Vice President to expand funding sources. However, the team's expertise is still only at an average level. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City FC's foreign players still play poorly, such as Endrick who has only scored 2 goals while Joao Pedro has only 1 goal. A very poor performance when looking at the fact that this club is valued by transfermarkt at 3.13 million euros (ranked 7th in the V-League).

Coach Phung Thanh Phuong said: "Professional football requires money, and this has been the biggest difficulty for Ho Chi Minh City Club in the past few years. This season, the team's financial situation has been less stressful but still not outstanding compared to other opponents. This year, Ho Chi Minh City Club has made an important change when a series of pillars such as Tung Quoc, Minh Tung, Tuan Tai, Ngoc Duc... left one after another. We are strongly cultivating young factors to form a new pillar framework such as Thanh Khoi, Vinh Nguyen, Thanh Long, Ngoc Long, Van Binh. Of course, in a short time, this will put the team under great pressure because they need time to train and become stronger. Fortunately, the whole team always plays with a high spirit of solidarity, focusing on calculating each match together." Coach Phung Thanh Phuong estimated that Ho Chi Minh City Club will need 28 - 29 points to be able to stay in the league safely. This means the "Red Battleship" will need 7 more points in the remaining 8 matches, starting with the match against CAHN at 7:15 p.m. on April 18.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/clb-tphcm-them-mot-mua-giai-nhoc-nhan-dua-tru-hang-185250416220517027.htm