Commendable statistics of Vietnam team against Japan

Vietnam team 2-4 Japan.

The Vietnamese national team suffered a 2-4 defeat against Japan in their opening match of the 2023 Asian Cup. For the first time in the history of encounters between the two teams, the Vietnamese team scored two goals against their opponent. These two goals against a world- class opponent are of considerable significance.

Nguyen Dinh Bac scored the equalizer with a header just minutes after Takumi Minamino opened the scoring. Pham Tuan Hai then scored the rebound to give Vietnam a 2-1 lead 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 FC player is only 19 years and 218 days old.

Over the past two years, the Vietnamese national team has been one of the few opponents to score two goals against Japan in a single match. Other teams that have achieved the same feat include Türkiye, Colombia, and Canada.

The last time the Japanese national team conceded more than two goals in a match was their 0-3 defeat against Tunisia on June 14, 2022. Teams like Germany, Spain, Croatia, Uruguay, and even Brazil have also failed to score more than one goal in a single match against Japan.

Furthermore, in the past two years, the Vietnamese national team, along with Germany, Tunisia, and Canada, have faced Japan two or more times. The Vietnamese team scored a total of 3 goals (including one by Nguyen Thanh Binh in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers), matching the tally of Canada and Tunisia. Meanwhile, the German team only scored 2 goals against Japan.

The Vietnamese national team is one of the few teams to have scored two goals against Japan.

The match between Vietnam and Japan at Al Thumama Stadium on the evening of January 14th was also the highest-scoring game since the start of the 2023 Asian Cup. Prior to that, Qatar defeated Lebanon 3-0, Australia beat India 2-0, while the matches between China and Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan and Syria both ended in a 0-0 draw.

Thus, the first match of the Vietnamese national team alone had a higher total number of goals than the previous four matches combined.

Another interesting detail is that the Vietnamese team did not receive any yellow cards in this match. This is one of the criteria used to determine rankings, alongside total goals and goal difference. At the 2019 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team advanced as one of the four best third-placed teams, having received one fewer yellow card than Lebanon, who finished fifth.

On the other side, the Japanese national team extended their winning streak to 11 matches. No other team in the 2023 Asian Cup has matched or surpassed this achievement of coach Hajime Moriyasu's team. In this winning streak, only the match against Tunisia saw Japan score 2 goals; in all other matches, they scored at least 4 goals against their opponents.

Hoai Duong

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