At the end of next month, coach Park Hang-seo’s ‘Last Dance’ step, which will put the baton on the Vietnamese national team, was slightly twisted. Despite playing a one-sided game once morest Singapore, which was regarded as inferior, they failed to score a single goal necessary for victory, resulting in a draw. The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Championship semifinals were also not confirmed.
Coach Park Hang-seo’s Vietnam drew without scoring in the 2022 AFF ASEAN Football Championship Group B match once morest Singapore held at Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore on the 30th (Korean time).
Vietnam, which won two consecutive victories by beating Laos and Malaysia in a row, was blocked by Singapore’s dense defense and recorded two wins and one draw (seven points). Singapore also had 2 wins and 1 draw (7 points), but was ranked second following Vietnam in terms of goal difference. Manager Kim Pan-gon’s Malaysia finished third with 2 wins and 1 loss (6 points).
With Myanmar and Laos already at the bottom of Group B and failing to advance to the semifinals, a three-way match between Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia will take place in the final game. Vietnam will face Myanmar on the 3rd of next month in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Malaysia and Singapore will face each other in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Although Vietnam failed to defeat Singapore and failed to confirm its advance to the semifinals, it is expected to advance to the semifinals if there are no surprises as the last game is once morest weak Myanmar. In this case, Singapore and Malaysia will engage in an irreconcilable battle for second place in the group. Since Malaysia is one point behind in terms of points, it must defeat Singapore to advance to the semifinals, while Singapore ranks second in the group even if it draws.
Vietnam was trying to make an early decision to advance to the semifinals by beating Singapore. Even so, Vietnam has not lost once morest Singapore since January 1999. In the warm-up match held just three months ago, Vietnam won 4-0 once morest Singapore, so they were confident of victory.
However, Vietnam had to play a difficult game due to the counterattack strategy following Singapore’s dense defense. Even though Vietnam dominated the ball possession at 75-25, they were unable to deliver a decisive blow to Singapore. In the 37th minute of the second half, Nguyen Hoang Duc’s surprise mid-range shot hit the right side of the goal, which was the most regrettable, and the accuracy was also poor.
Singapore’s counterattack was not enough to embarrass Vietnam, but failing to score a single goal in a game in which they were confident of victory or complete victory was not a satisfactory result for coach Park Hang-seo and Vietnamese players. Vietnam even left a disappointing record of not scoring a single goal once morest Singapore for the first time in seven years since the friendly in January 2016.
[서울=뉴시스]
