Uzbekistan is the second opponent of the Vietnamese team in the October friendly series. This is a closed practice match, because the Vietnamese team is only allowed to play 2 official matches during this training session - according to FIFA regulations.
After half a year working with coach Philippe Troussier, the Vietnamese team has gradually absorbed the philosophy of attacking and controlling the ball. The ball possession rate of the Vietnamese team has improved significantly. However, the efficiency is not high. On the other hand, the weak defense ability of the Vietnamese team is the reason for the 0-2 loss to China a few days ago.
The Vietnamese team has clearly changed their playing style, but it seems that coach Troussier is still struggling to find a solution for the team's attack. The ability to deploy the ball at home and in the middle of the field is relatively stable, but the Vietnamese team lacks "playbook" when they have the ball on the opponent's field.
The Vietnamese team faces many worries when meeting Uzbekistan.
Coach Troussier tried many options, using almost all of Vietnam's best football players in attack. However, this problem has not been solved.
After 4 friendly matches, the team has only scored 4 goals. This is not an impressive number when the opponents of the Vietnam team in the past time are not strong beyond their level. Against Hong Kong (China), Syria, Palestine or even the Chinese team, the number of attacks creating open ball opportunities as Coach Troussier wanted was not much.
In addition, the French coach has not been able to clearly define the playing framework. Although the current matches are experimental in nature, Coach Troussier has made the fans impatient. The Vietnamese team has not yet had a match to assemble the optimal force as the 2026 World Cup qualifiers approach.
Meanwhile, the Uzbekistan team has many stars playing in Europe such as Husniddin Aliqulov (Caykur Rizespor, Türkiye), Abbosbek Fayzullaev (CSKA Moscow, Russia), Rustam Ashurmatov (Rubin Kazan, Russia) or Abdukodir Khusanov (RC Lens, France). The team in the top 10 of Asia is clearly rated higher than the Vietnam team.
The challenge for coach Troussier and his team in this match is bigger than the match against China. Coach Troussier will certainly continue to experiment. However, the Vietnamese team needs a good performance and must also pay attention to the results to prove that these experiments are on the right track.
Expected lineup Vietnam vs Uzbekistan
Vietnam: Van Lam; Tuan Tai, Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh, Minh Trong, Hung Dung, Thai Son, Tien Anh; Tien Linh, Hoang Duc, Tuan Hai.
Uzbekistan: Yysupov, Alikulov, Eshmurodov, Saitov, Khambobekov, Shukurov, Sayfiyev, Turgunboev, Abdikholikov, Masharipov, Khoshimov.
Prediction: Vietnam 0-2 Uzbekistan (Watch live football here)
Hoai Duong
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