What does the Vietnamese team expect from HAGL's 'giant' rookie?

1.96m tall central defender Dinh Quang Kiet of HAGL Club was unexpectedly called up to the Vietnam national team. This is a very important turning point for this central defender and for the national team.

One step straight to the Vietnam team

Dinh Quang Kiet is only 18 years old this year, he was called directly to the national team without going through the intermediate step of joining the Vietnam U.23 team. Therefore, the fact that Dinh Quang Kiet was called up to the Vietnam team is still a big surprise.

Center back Quang Kiet has a physique rarely seen in Vietnamese football players.

Photo: HAGL FC

However, it can be seen that coach Kim Sang-sik has a reason to include the central defender currently playing for HAGL Club in the list of the national team. First, Quang Kiet's extremely good physique is a factor that cannot be ignored. In the near future, the Vietnamese team will play a friendly match with Nam Dinh Club, the team that owns the tallest striker in the world, Kyle Hudlin (2.06 m). At that time, the Vietnamese team needs a central defender with a height close to Kyle Hudlin to limit the danger of this player in aerial battles and one-on-one disputes.

Dinh Quang Kiet is the domestic center back who best meets the physical criteria, the average of the domestic players playing in the V-League, that we can call up to the national team.

In addition, in the context that Southeast Asian teams such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are increasingly using naturalized players from Europe and America, who are tall and physically fit, the Vietnamese team must also have a plan to improve the players' physique, to shorten the gap in physique and physical strength compared to their opponents.

In the matches against Indonesia at the 2023 Asian Cup and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia (taking place in late 2023 and early 2024) and in the match against Malaysia in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers (on June 10), the Vietnamese team lost because of high balls and because they could not keep up with the speed and impact of the opponent. That further raises the urgent need for us to have a defense with better physical strength. Therefore, coach Kim Sang-sik wants to test tall players like Dinh Quang Kiet in the near future.

Solution for… attack

If Dinh Quang Kiet performs well in the friendly matches against CAHN and Nam Dinh clubs in September, he could be considered for the Vietnam national team for the remainder of the 2027 Asian Cup third qualifying round, where Vietnam will face Nepal and Laos in October and November, and Malaysia again in March next year. Furthermore, Dinh Quang Kiet could be added to the Vietnam U.23 team at the 33rd SEA Games in December.

The Vietnam team will have more options in both defense and attack.

Photo: Ngoc Linh

There is a very remarkable detail, when owning a tall player like Quang Kiet in the squad, the national teams and the Vietnam U.23 team can not only defend well against high balls, but also have more options... to attack. Suppose the Vietnamese teams are stuck against opponents who play dense defense, especially at the end of each match, we can push Dinh Quang Kiet straight to the striker position, standing in the opponent's penalty area, handling high balls provided by the home team's midfielders.

This style of play should not be underestimated, because when the opponent is firmly positioned in the penalty area, any small group coordination on the field is useless. At that time, high-altitude plays must be used. This is the style of play that the Australian team used against Argentina at the 2022 World Cup (center back Harry Souttar, 1.98 m tall) and almost succeeded. Or the Netherlands also used against Argentina at the 2022 World Cup (striker Wout Weghorst, 1.97 m tall), making the Argentines almost cry in hatred.

Dinh Quang Kiet has a height similar to the above players, so the Vietnamese team can theoretically use HAGL players in a similar way when they are in a deadlock. The remaining problem is that Quang Kiet must soon show his usefulness in the coming days, when he has the opportunity to wear the Vietnamese team shirt.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/doi-tuyen-viet-nam-cho-doi-gi-o-tan-binh-khong-lo-cua-hagl-185250826130630878.htm