VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam national football team will play fair with North Korea in a friendly match to be held at Thong Nhat Stadium in HCM City today, Oct 6, according to Viet Nam’s head coach Nguyen Huu Thang.

Setting the stage: Viet Nam team train at Thong Nhat Stadium in HCM City to prepare for the friendly match with North Korea today. — Photo vnecdn.net

The match is a warm-up for Viet Nam to prepare for the AFF Suzuki Cup 2016 in November.

In the FIFA rankings, Viet Nam rank 141st while North Korea are 118th place.

To prepare for the match, Thang called 30 players—including three players who are competing for foreign clubs, namely midfielder Luong Xuan Truong and Nguyen Tuan Anh, striker Nguyen Cong Phuong.

“North Korea has played in the World Cup. They are better than our team in terms of skills and physical strength, so the match is very useful for us,” said Thang.

“The match’s result is important but for me, players’ performance is more important. The team need to fair play with North Korea to serve fans nationwide,” said Thang.

“Viet Nam have had the best lineup ever since the AFF Cup in 2008 for the coming match. With many young players, coach Thang will have many choices and changes of way of playing,” said captain Le Cong Vinh.

“North Korea have many good players, and they are a strong team. I know that because I have faced many of their young players. However, the match’s result is not the most important thing. Through the match, we will learn lessons for the future and the coming AFF Cup,” said Vinh.

North Korea registered 22 players for the match, including Pak Kwang-ryong who plays as a striker for Lausanne in the Swiss Super League. Earlier, he joined Basel FC and became the first North Korean to play in the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League campaign coming on the field in the 92nd minute. Besides Pak, Jong II Gwan, top five scorers in the Asian Games in 2014, is also on the list.

Coach Norwegian Jorn Andersen said his team have four weeks to prepare for the match. He doesn’t know much about Viet Nam team, but he thinks that Viet Nam are a challenging rival and the coming match will be difficult for North Korea.

Andersen started coaching North Korea in May. He guided the team to tie with Iraq 1-1 and beat United Arab Emirates 2-0.

Source: VNS