High ball mark
Vietnam U23 won 3-0 against Laos U23 in the opening round of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 group stage. Following that, the "Young Warriors of the Golden Star" defeated Cambodia U23 with a score of 2-1 to take the top spot in Group B, thereby earning the right to enter the semi-finals of the tournament. As the regional champion for the last 2 consecutive times, the fact that Vietnam U23 overcame opponents of lower level is not a surprise to football fans. What experts and fans are interested in is how Vietnam U23 performed against Laos and Cambodia.
In terms of professional plus points, Coach Kim Sang-sik's ability to exploit high ball situations in general and corner kicks in particular is a commendable highlight. 3 out of 5 goals that U23 Vietnam scored came from corner kicks. It could be a pass aimed at the near post, or a cross aimed at the far post. It could also be a situation that causes confusion in the opponent's defense before a U23 Vietnam player takes advantage of the bouncing ball to finish close to the goal.
The effectiveness in various corner kick situations shows that U23 Vietnam has prepared quite carefully during training, from the arrangement of personnel in the penalty area to the corner kick taker. Quoc Viet, Van Khang, Dinh Bac took turns performing situations on both the left and right wings. Inside, Hieu Minh, Ly Duc and Nhat Minh also performed the task of standing in different positions to ensure that they made good use of the opportunities created.
In addition to corner kicks, high balls in general are the way for U23 Vietnam to resolve the deadlock in the game. In addition to 3 situations of converting opportunities into goals from set pieces, the "Golden Star Warriors" have 2 more goals from the same scenario. That is, hanging the ball from the left wing to the opposite direction in the penalty area. At that time, the right strikers will be the "cutting point" to threaten the opponent's goal. In the first goal of U23 Vietnam in the group stage, Van Khang scored after an assist from Phi Hoang. In the most recent goal from Dinh Bac, this player made a surprise header after a pass from the left wing by Thanh Dat.
Also looking from the above story, U23 Vietnam is "copying" the Vietnamese national team's attack. That is, taking advantage of situations going down the left wing, attracting the opponent's number of players to concentrate in this area before making a diagonal pass to a teammate from the right wing to rush in, finishing the ball towards the goal. The outstanding factors in the past 2 matches of U23 Vietnam are also concentrated on the 2 wings. That is Phi Hoang, Van Khang on the left wing and Dinh Bac, Anh Quan on the right wing.
U23 Vietnam made their mark from corner kicks.
The unfortunate minus points
Besides the plus points, U23 Vietnam also did not play convincingly in the 2 victories against U23 Laos and U23 Cambodia. Right after the "Young Warriors of the Golden Star" passed the group stage, midfielder Nghiem Xuan Tu pointed out the problem in the attacking organization of his juniors.
“Finishing is a worrying issue for U23 Vietnam. The players made unreasonable final decisions. There were situations where the players needed to be careful but they handled them hastily. On the contrary, there were situations where the team needed to coordinate quickly but they were cumbersome and unreasonable,” said Xuan Tu. “I will take the example of the second half. Instead of passing the ball to Viktor Le, Van Khang held back a beat. As a result, the subsequent coordination was not successful. Then when U23 Cambodia pushed up the formation, U23 Vietnam had some attacks that split the opponent’s defense. But U23 Vietnam had too few cutting points inside. We need at least 2-3 cutting points in the penalty area to finish.”
Continuing Xuan Tu's words, former player Quang Long commented: "Quoc Viet, Van Khang, Van Truong and Phi Hoang have created diverse options in crossing the ball. Right-back Anh Quan himself also often moves up from the right wing and penetrates the penalty area. But unfortunately, we don't finish well. In addition, the passing is quite bad."
This former player also pointed out that the U23 Vietnam strikers lacked confidence in moving without the ball or daring to break through the siege from the opponent's defense. What Quoc Viet and Viktor Le did was still too simple and easy to predict. In the position of often receiving the ball with their backs to the opponent's goal, both often chose the one-touch coordination solution for the winger to enter the penalty area, which was quite stereotyped, lacking creativity and causing surprise.
Coach Kim Sang-sik himself admitted that U23 Vietnam has missed too many opportunities. And if the above story continues, paying the price against U23 Philippines in the semi-final match taking place at 4:00 p.m. on July 25 is entirely possible!
Viktor Le causes controversy
Regarding his personal story, the poor performance of Vietnamese-American Viktor Le in the past two matches has received controversy from fans. Some extreme fans believe that Viktor Le is being isolated in the U23 Vietnam team, as his teammates refuse to cooperate with the Vietnamese-American.
However, observing on the field, Viktor Le himself is only playing at an average level in the last 2 matches. The Vietnamese-American player's touches on the ball do not create any breakthroughs. His ability to move and choose his position is also ineffective. That makes it difficult for the surrounding satellites such as Quoc Viet, Van Khang, Van Truong to coordinate with Viktor Le in the phases of penetrating the penalty area of U23 Laos and U23 Cambodia.
In addition to Viktor Le, two faces expected to create "explosive points" in the U23 Vietnam attack, Van Truong and Quoc Viet, also did not play convincingly. Van Truong's dynamism is noteworthy, when he is willing to stick close to and move to many areas to coordinate with his teammates. However, what coach Kim Sang-sik needs from him is the through passes that create danger for the opponent's penalty area, but he is not present. This issue was originally mentioned when U23 Vietnam won 3-0 against U23 Laos before.
Source: https://cand.com.vn/the-thao/nhung-diem-yeu-can-khac-phuc-cua-u23-viet-nam-i775905/
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