U.23 Vietnam reveals fatal weakness, must fix immediately before it's too late: Philippines is not ordinary!

The central defenders are good at attacking but not good at defending.

Through 2 group stage matches of the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament, U.23 Vietnam scored 5 goals and conceded 1 goal. Against opponents who were rated much lower than us, U.23 Laos and U.23 Cambodia, the fact that coach Kim Sang-sik's team conceded a goal is a matter of great concern.

U.23 Việt Nam lộ nhược điểm chí mạng, phải sửa gấp trước khi quá muộn: Philippines không tầm thường!- Ảnh 1. — U.23 Vietnam's aerial ball defense is not good.

The goal that U.23 Vietnam lost to U.23 Cambodia came from an aerial situation. This reflects that although the central defenders of U.23 Vietnam, including Pham Ly Duc, Nguyen Hieu Minh and Nguyen Nhat Minh, participated in the attack quite well (the central defenders scored 3/5 goals of U.23 Vietnam), they were weak in the most important task which is defense, including defending high balls.

The ability of the U.23 Vietnam central defenders to mark and cover each other is not good. They let U.23 Cambodia striker Mon Rado "slip through", allowing this player to comfortably head the ball into the net of goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien, in the 63rd minute.

This is a very alarming detail for U.23 Vietnam, because our opponent in the semi-finals, U.23 Philippines, has taller players who are better at playing high balls than U.23 Cambodia players. Specifically, U.23 Philippines has striker Andres Aldeguer (1.89 m), midfielder Gavin Muens (1.87 m), and defender Jaime Rosquillo (1.84 m), all of whom are experts in aerial combat. In theory, U.23 Philippines will exploit high balls more than U.23 Cambodia.

U.23 Vietnam must adjust immediately

As for the ball that took place on the field, due to poor covering ability, U.23 Vietnam also let U.23 Cambodia's strikers pass them several times in the match that took place on the evening of July 22. Cambodian defender Phat Soka, in the attack phase, had a powerful shot in the 8th minute, forcing goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien to work hard to block. This was also the first shot on target in the match between U.23 Vietnam and U.23 Cambodia.

U.23 Việt Nam lộ nhược điểm chí mạng, phải sửa gấp trước khi quá muộn: Philippines không tầm thường!- Ảnh 2. — U.23 Vietnam needs to play more effectively

In the 47th minute, if Xuan Bac had not cleared the ball right in front of the goal line, after the situation where central defender Ly Duc missed the ball and a Cambodian player headed the ball, goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien's net would have shaken.

These are all situations that U.23 Vietnam needs to learn from. Our opponent in the semi-finals, U.23 Philippines, is stronger than U.23 Cambodia. Therefore, if we make the same mistake as in the last match, coach Kim Sang-sik's team may not have the chance to correct such mistakes.

Another point that the central defenders of U.23 Vietnam need to pay attention to is that goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien is not good at playing the ball with his feet. Passing back to goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien too much, especially when the opponent is close to the penalty area of U.23 Vietnam, will cause difficulties for our goalkeeper, easily leading to goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien losing his composure and making mistakes.

U.23 Vietnam must quickly fix these weaknesses before the semi-finals take place on July 25. Our opponent is U.23 Philippines.