U22 Vietnam: Is coach Kim Sang Sik hiding something?

The opening match of the 33rd SEA Games of U22 Vietnam ended with a victory over Laos as predicted, however, people wonder if coach Kim Sang Sik is... hiding his cards?

Disappointing victory

As expected, U22 Vietnam won all 3 points in the opening match against U22 Laos. However, the fans' expectations are not just a simple victory, but must be a convincing performance, demonstrating the superiority and stature of the candidate for the gold medal of the congress.

However, what was shown on Rajamangala field was the opposite. The playing style of U22 Vietnam almost did not have any significant innovation when maintaining the slow ball deployment, attacking mainly based on sideline situations and lacking breakthroughs in the middle.

U22 Vietnam completed the goal of 3 points, but the playing style was not convincing.

Likewise, the team's efficiency in finishing. The strikers' conversion rate into goals was very low, making the match unnecessarily difficult, even having to wait for the referee's "flag-breaking" situation for U22 Vietnam to be able to win 2-1.

More importantly, although U22 Laos' attack was not very sharp, it still created at least 2-3 clear opportunities before breaking through Trung Kien's net, causing the disappointment for coach Kim Sang Sik and his team to increase many times.

Is Kim Sang Sik hiding his cards?

A few months ago, U22 Vietnam (then called U23) also had a good start and won 3-0 at the Southeast U23 tournament against U23 Laos in Indonesia.

Apart from the different scores, the rest had too many things in common: Mr. Kim Sang Sik's team played deadlocked against a deep defense, missed too many opportunities, and the defense still made quite elementary mistakes, fortunately U23 Laos could not take advantage.

This happened in the victory against U23 Laos at the U23 Southeast Asia tournament, so it can be affirmed that coach Kim Sang Sik is not hiding anything.

And the above problems did not only happen against U22 Laos but also continued in other victories of U22 Vietnam in the Southeast Asian tournament, the U23 Asian qualifiers until the opening match at SEA Games 33. So it can be seen that coach Kim Sang Sik went all in, at least in terms of tactics.

The team has not improved or changed, the first responsibility certainly belongs to the head coach, especially when Mr. Kim Sang Sik is prioritizing stability instead of making sudden adjustments.

This is shown by the fact that 9/11 players (except Van Truong and Anh Quan) in the starting lineup against Laos in the U23 Southeast Asia tournament continued to start in the opening match of the 33rd SEA Games, for example.

And when that stability does not bring about efficiency in playing style, it is conservative. So, to make U22 Vietnam's playing style more effective, perhaps coach Kim Sang Sik needs to boldly give opportunities to new names, or those used before, to break the current deadlock.

Without timely and more flexible adjustments, the path to the gold medal for coach Kim Sang Sik's team will certainly not be easy, even though they are the number 1 candidate at SEA Games 33.

Watch SEA Games 33, side by side with the Vietnamese Sports Delegation, most fully onFPT Play, at: http://fptplay.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/u22-viet-nam-lieu-hlv-kim-sang-sik-dang-giau-bai-2469495.html