VietNamNet Bridge – Former national coach Mai Duc Chung said it was a ’good’ defeat for Vietnam’s U-23 team who lost 1-2 to Uzbekistan during their M-150 Cup match yesterday in Thailand.

A step ahead: Vietnamese striker Nguyen Cong Phuong (left) gets away from Uzbek player during their M-150 Cup match. Uzbekistan won 2-1.— VNS Photo Tuan Tu

Chung, who left his post in October to focus on the women’s team, meant that it would help both players and coaches of the squad to find out and fix their weaknesses ahead of their Asian Championship next January.

In yesterday’s game, coach Park Hang-seo used the 3-4-3 formulation which is very new to Vietnam. Players did not seem to work fluently, especially the defenders, leading to their loss.

Do Duy Manh, a member of the national team and key player of Ha Noi FC, made mistakes in both goals.

Both, players and coaches, knew that Uzbeks were taller and bigger than the Vietnamese and would create a lot of challenges. However, Vietnam did not meet any difficulty in the first 30 minutes when they set up a better situation with more attacks and on-target finishes.

But it was the Uzbeks who opened the score from a simple counter-attack.

Abdixolikov Bobir received a pass from the right wing and shot into the net from just five metres.

The low pass, earlier, came close to defender Manh who could easily have kicked it out but he missed, giving a chance to Bobir who did not waste the golden opportunity.

A loss meant that Vietnam would fail to make the friendly Cup’s final. This was the reason that Vietnamese players pushed up their speed and created consecutive attempts in the rest of the time of the first half. However, their efforts failed.

After the interval, South Korean Park made two changes in his line-up and Vietnam round the equaliser.

Midfielder Nguyen Phong Hong Duy went down in the box and Vietnam were given a penalty.

Striker Nguyen Cong Phuong succeeded with a kick to his right corner at the 60th minute.

Coach Chung in commentary shows between two halves and after the match said Uzbekistan’s playing style was very simple. They just brought the ball ahead, passed it to the box for their forwards who could either shoot in or make headers.

However, this style worked very well against Vietnam whose defence lost their contact and did not cover for each other.

The second goal for Uzbekistan came from that 65th-minute situation.

Captain Urinboev Zabikhillo received the ball when he was surrounded by three Vietnamese defenders and headed to the net. Goalkeeper Hoang pushed it out but it was not strong enough to save his net.

Urinboev fell to the ground after his header but quickly stood up and shot straight to the net. This time, Hoang could not stop the ball.

Defender Manh also took part in this incident but again failed to defend his net.

"It is a problem when players choose their places to resist an attack. It is also a problem of a familiar position of a player in a team. (The new formulation) put them in a strange place and they did not work well, I think," said Chung.

Three more changes were made to the Vietnam side. Attacking midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai who scored two goals in the previous match and striker Ha Duc Chinh, who impressed Park with his seven goals in the V. League, were on the field.

Though they brought some fresh air into the team it was not enough to find the goal although several threatening chances were created.

Uzbekistan also had their moments and they nearly scored the third goal near the end of the match but goalie Hoang did his job well.

Park showed his disappointment in the post-match conference, saying his players had played a selfish match and had not worked as a team.

He said his players were playing below par and he was not satisfied with their performance.

Park said his team was sad but thanks to the loss he realised that some things needed to be changed. They would first focus on the third-place match in which he would maintain the 3-4-3 line-up.

Losing this match, Vietnam were ranked second in Group B and will play the bronze-medal match against the second-placed team of Group A on Friday.

Uzbekistan will compete for a gold medal against North Korea who beat Thailand 1-0 in a later match yesterday. 

Source: VNS