Japan is the strongest, Indonesia is unpredictable

Vietnam's opponents at the 2023 Asian Cup are gradually revealed before the opening day of the tournament. Among them, Japan is very strong, while Indonesia is extremely unpredictable.

Asian Cup 2023: Japan is a 'formidable' opponent of the Vietnam team. (Source: FAT).

Japan is certainly one of the most watched names at the 2023 Asian Cup. They are not only the strongest team in Group D, but also the strongest team in the Asian championship in theory.

In terms of tradition, strength and form, Japan are at the top of the league. They are the team that has won the Asian championship the most times (4 times, twice as many as their opponent Korea), and they have the largest number of players playing in Europe (20 players, almost twice as many as Korea).

The technical quality and tactical discipline of Japanese players are among the highest in Asia. That is the reason why Japan rarely loses to lower-ranked teams and rarely falls victim to shocking surprises in major tournaments.

The Vietnamese team still occasionally surprises stronger teams, but mainly surprises teams from West Asia. As for teams from East Asia, especially Japan, the Vietnamese team rarely surprises.

The main reason why it is difficult for the Vietnamese team to surprise East Asian teams in general, and Japan in particular, is because the tactical discipline of these teams is much better than that of teams from West Asia.

Japan has defeated Vietnam twice at the Asian Cup. The first time was in 2007, when the team from the land of the rising sun defeated Alfred Riedl's team 4-1 at My Dinh Stadium in the group stage. The second time, Japan defeated Coach Park Hang Seo's Vietnam team 1-0, in the quarter-finals of the 2019 tournament in the UAE.

The scores of these matches were not too high, especially in the Asian Cup quarter-final match 5 years ago. But the important thing is that in the matches against Japan, the Vietnamese team almost did not see a way to win.

If Japan is the toughest opponent in Group D, Indonesia is the opponent that coach Troussier and his team must win if they want to continue.

Winning against Indonesia is not only related to the ticket to the round of 16 (the top two teams in each Asian Cup group, along with the four third-placed teams with the best results will advance to the next round), but also related to the position and image of Vietnamese football in relation to Indonesian football. Vietnam and Indonesia are two football nations that often compete with each other in Southeast Asia.

At this year's tournament, Indonesia is very unpredictable when they use up to 8 naturalized players of European origin in the squad. Vietnamese football circles have very little information about these naturalized players, because they have hardly seen them play before.

Indonesia had a shaky start to their preparations for the 2023 Asian Cup, with coach Shi Tae Yong and his team receiving a lot of criticism, but things seem to be getting better for the team from the archipelago.

Coach Shin Tae Yong's team only lost 1-2 to Libya in a friendly match in Türkiye last night. That was a different result from the 0-4 loss to Libya a few days ago, which means that Indonesia's squad is performing better over time. At the same time, Coach Shin Tae Yong seems to have found the right players for his team.

The remaining opponent in Group D is Iraq. The Vietnamese team can aim to get a point against the West Asian team, to further strengthen their hope of getting a ticket to the round of 16.

In November 2023, Coach Troussier's team almost drew with Iraq at My Dinh Stadium, in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, if we had not suffered a goal in the last minute of extra time.

Iraq has not changed much since the match last November, nor has the Vietnamese team. In theory, both sides have understood each other better and the Asian Cup match between Vietnam and Iraq on January 24 promises to be tighter and more tense.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/asian-cup-2023-doi-thu-cua-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-nhat-ban-manh-nhat-indonesia-kho-doan-256438.html