UPPER DOOR POSITION
Although there are still many doubts about the level of U.23 Vietnam after the not-so-convincing victories against U.23 Laos and Cambodia, it must be admitted that Van Khang and his teammates are gradually improving.
U.23 Vietnam has the best average ball possession rate in the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 Championship
PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG
The U.23 Vietnam team has the best ball control in the tournament: the average possession rate is 72.5%/match, ranking above the other two top teams, U.23 Indonesia and Thailand. The young "golden star warriors" also create the best chances in the tournament: an average of 21.5 shots/match; the figures for the U.23 Indonesia and Thailand teams are 18.7 and 18 respectively.
Compared to the U.23 Philippines team, the attacking ability of U.23 Vietnam is completely superior. Coach Garrath McPherson's team only holds the ball on average 40%/match, making 9 shots/match. This team mainly plays defense and counter-attacks. They even play fiercely, ready to foul their opponents, currently the team that commits the most fouls in the tournament: 39 fouls and 11 yellow cards.
Looking at the experience of the main players who can make a difference in the semi-final, the U.23 Vietnam team is also better than the opponent. Van Khang, Thai Son, Dinh Bac have 21, 13 and 11 matches for the national team respectively. Meanwhile, the total number of appearances for the Philippines team of Harry Nunez, Gavin Muens, Uriel Dalapo, Javier Mariona is only 10. Thanks to many players who regularly play in the national championship, the value of the U.23 Vietnam team is 2.3 million euros, double that of the U.23 Philippines team.
Statistics clearly show that U.23 Vietnam has a better quality squad, leaning towards attacking and dominating play; while U.23 Philippines will play patiently, waiting for mistakes from the opponent. The semi-final match will be a contest between two opposing schools, promising to be extremely exciting.
What does U.23 Vietnam need to improve?
U.23 Vietnam will play in control, and will almost certainly continue to be the team that creates more chances than their opponents. However, many chances will not necessarily help coach Kim Sang-sik and his team reach the final if they do not fix the problem of finishing.
43 shots, but only 14 times the ball was on target, and 5 of them became goals. That is a low conversion rate. The Korean strategist as well as midfielder Xuan Bac admitted that the U.23 Vietnam team was not sharp in the finishing phase. That was part of the reason why we went through difficult moments in the 2-1 victory over U.23 Cambodia.
Improving the finishing is an urgent task, because U.23 Philippines also defends very well. Their only goal conceded in the group stage came from an own goal, after an unpleasant throw-in by U.23 Indonesia. In defense, this team has a 1.84 m tall center back Jaime Rosquillo, who has successfully neutralized many high balls from U.23 Indonesia and Malaysia.
At the same time, when U.23 Vietnam does not finish well, the counter-attack opportunities for U.23 Philippines will be more numerous. In the crucial match against U.23 Malaysia, U.23 Philippines patiently "took the hit" and then launched sharp "counterattacks" to win 2-0. During those 90 minutes, they only had 3 shots on target, proving that Coach McPherson's students are very good at punishing opponents.
Calmness is also something that U.23 Vietnam must achieve. The ineffective finishing is partly due to nervousness and impatience. In the finishing practice sessions, Van Khang, Quoc Viet, Dinh Bac, Van Truong, Viktor Le... always performed very impressively but could not demonstrate that in the official match. Or players who do not have much experience like Anh Quan sometimes handle the ball clumsily and regrettably lose control of the ball. Calmness will also help U.23 Vietnam not only control the ball well but also control the tempo of the match, put pressure on the opponent, and then suddenly accelerate to deliver the "finishing blow".
Coach Kim Sang-sik said that U.23 Philippines is not an easy opponent. However, Vietnamese football fans have reason to believe that Van Khang and his teammates will win the right to enter the final thanks to their collective strength and individual skills that are better than their opponents. As long as they play to their full potential, maintain concentration to finish sharply, the journey to defend the Southeast Asian throne of U.23 Vietnam will be one step closer.
Speaking before G-hour
Coach Kim Sang-sik (Vietnam U.23 team): "The Philippines' strength is defensive counter-attacks with players number 7 (Banatao) and number 20 (Mariona) who are very dangerous. Vietnam U.23 defenders need to be very focused to lock down these players. We will try to prepare well to achieve favorable results and will try our best on the field."
Coach Garrath McPherson (U.23 Philippines team): "U.23 Vietnam has many goals from set pieces, is always well prepared, and has many players playing for the national team. I have a plan to prevent set pieces from U.23 Vietnam. Let's wait and see how we neutralize that weapon."
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lich-thi-dau-u23-viet-nam-philippines-hom-nay-se-choi-ap-dat-de-vao-chung-ket-185250724220348356.htm
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