How did Vietnamese football cause difficulties for the Iraqi team?

Lessons from old people

If you include the match between U.23 Vietnam and U.23 Iraq taking place at 0:30 tomorrow morning (April 27, Vietnam time), in less than half a year, from November 2023 to now, Vietnamese teams met Iraqi teams three times, all at major international tournaments.

Twice ago, when Vietnamese football met representatives of Iraqi football, the West Asian team, although considered much stronger, still encountered many difficulties against our team.

For the first time, Iraq won 1-0 against the Vietnamese team in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia, which took place in November 2023. For the second time, the Iraqi team won 3-2 against the Vietnamese team in the 2023 Asian Cup group stage, which took place in January 2024. The common point is that the winning goals of the Iraqi team all took place in the final moments of the above matches.

That means Iraq had to work very hard to overcome the Vietnamese team. On the contrary, Vietnamese players only lost to their opponents in the above matches because of lack of experience and physical exhaustion, so they could not stand for the entire match.

Coach Troussier may have failed when leading the Vietnamese teams (national team and U.23 national team), but at least when facing the Iraqi team, the French coach knows how to make the Western team Asia cannot play according to his will.

First, coach Troussier had his players defend the area, blocking the Iraqi players, leaving the Iraqi players without much space to operate. Defending the area, instead of “catching” the opponent’s attacking player, helps the Vietnamese players not have to fall into a direct confrontation with the Iraqi players, which will certainly be disadvantageous because the opponent is big, Tronger.

Second, when facing Iraq, the Vietnamese team defended very carefully on both sides, minimizing crosses from the sideline by the West Asian team. Along with Iranian players, Iraqi players have one of the best physiques in Asia. They play high ball very well, so if they were allowed to freely cross the ball from both sides to the inside for their strikers to occupy space to play high ball, it would be very dangerous for Vietnamese players.

This is the disadvantage of the current U23 Vietnam team, because coach Hoang Anh Tuan currently does not have a real left back in the squad. In the match against U.23 Uzbekistan in the group stage, our third goal came from a cross from Uzbekistan’s right wing (ie U.23 Vietnam’s left wing), then the opponent inside hit. grid input.

Advantages of U.23 Vietnam under coach Hoang Anh Tuan

Against U.23 Iraq, these cross-wing and header situations can be even more dangerous. Therefore, coach Hoang Anh Tuan must quickly cover the weaknesses on both sides, especially the weakness on the home team’s left wing.

In attack, when coach Troussier’s Vietnamese team previously faced Iraq, the French coach tried to take advantage of fixed situations to approach the opponent’s goal. Bui Hoang Viet Anh of the Vietnamese team once opened the scoring against Iraq at the Asian Cup, from a fixed ball.

Fixed situations are also one of the strengths of the U.23 Vietnam team under coach Hoang Anh Tuan, so this is a plan that we need to continue to promote.

Regarding the final moments that caused the Vietnamese team to lose to Iraq in the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, coach Troussier’s team previously had poor endurance, leading to being out of breath at the end of the match. This is a lesson for the current U.23 Vietnam team.

The positive detail is that coach Hoang Anh Tuan pays great attention to the physical preparation of the home team, so the endurance of U.23 Vietnam and the concentration of this team are now better than when he was in charge. by coach Troussier. Hopefully the current U.23 Vietnam team will improve our weaknesses, promote our own strengths under coach Troussier, to do better against opponent Iraq!

Even Vietnamese audiences have high expectations for victory for coach Hoang Anh Tuan’s team. Half of the newspaper’s readers Bar Nien When predicting this match, predict U.23 Vietnam to win, some predict a draw, only a small number predict we lose.