Vietnam team 2-4 Japan.
Vietnam suffered a 2-4 defeat to Japan in the opening match of the 2023 Asian Cup. For the first time in the history of the confrontation between the two teams, Vietnam scored 2 goals against this opponent. Two goals against a world- class opponent is of great significance.
Nguyen Dinh Bac headed home the equalizer 1-1 just minutes after Takumi Minamino opened the scoring. Pham Tuan Hai scored the rebound to help the Vietnamese team lead 2-1 in the 33rd minute.
With his goal in the match against Japan, Dinh Bac became the youngest Vietnamese player to score in an Asian Cup. The Quang Nam Club player is only 19 years and 218 days old.
In the past two years, the Vietnamese team is one of the few opponents to score two goals against Japan in a match. The other teams to do the same are Türkiye, Colombia and Canada.
The last time the Japanese team conceded more than 2 goals in a match was a 0-3 defeat to Tunisia on June 14, 2022. Teams such as Germany, Spain, Croatia, Uruguay and even Brazil could not score more than 1 goal in a match against Japan.
In addition, in the past 2 years, the Vietnamese team, along with Germany, Tunisia, and Canada, are the teams that have met Japan 2 or more times. The Vietnamese team scored a total of 3 goals (including 1 goal by Nguyen Thanh Binh in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers), equal to the achievements of Canada and Tunisia. Meanwhile, the German team only scored 2 goals against Japan.
The Vietnam team is one of the few teams to score 2 goals against Japan.
The match between Vietnam and Japan at Al Thumama Stadium on the evening of January 14 was also the match with the most goals since the start of the 2023 Asian Cup. Previously, Qatar beat Lebanon 3-0, Australia defeated India 2-0, and the two matches between China and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and Syria both ended in 0-0 draws.
Thus, the first match of the Vietnamese team alone had more goals than the previous 4 matches combined.
Another interesting detail is that the Vietnamese team did not receive any yellow cards in this match. This is one of the indicators used to determine the ranking, along with the total number of goals or goal difference. At the 2019 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team advanced as one of the four third-placed teams with the best results thanks to one fewer yellow card than the fifth-placed team, Lebanon.
On the other side, the Japanese team extended their winning streak to 11. No team at the 2023 Asian Cup can match or surpass this achievement of coach Hajime Moriyasu and his team. In this winning streak, only in the match against Tunisia did Japan score 2 goals, the rest of them scored at least 4 goals.
Hoai Duong
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