Vietnam - Myanmar: Mr. Kim Sang Sik's choices and calculations

After 3 matches, Vietnam has 7 points, leading the group. Meanwhile, Myanmar has 4 points. With no team in Group B certain to advance, the match between Vietnam and Myanmar at Viet Tri Stadium promises to be very exciting.

With the current situation, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team have the right to decide their own fate. Coach Kim Sang Sik's team only needs to win 1 point against Myanmar to qualify for the next round as the top team. The Vietnamese team will only be eliminated if they lose by 2 goals or more to Myanmar and if Indonesia wins against the Philippines.

In this match, with the home field advantage and enthusiastic support from the fans, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team are considered to have many advantages to defeat their opponents. At Viet Tri Stadium, the Vietnamese players always play with great spirit.

The head-to-head record between the two teams is also leaning towards the Vietnamese team. The Vietnamese team has met their opponents 11 times since 1996, with 8 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss.

With the high competition density in the ASEAN Cup 2024, it is necessary for coach Kim Sang Sik to rotate the squad to "preserve energy" and create conditions for many players to compete. However, the Korean strategist's calculations are not always really accurate. The developments in the match in the Philippines are the clearest lesson for this coach to learn from, avoiding making the Vietnamese team pay a high price.

In all three matches against Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines, the Korean coach often arranged the starting lineup with mostly "substitutes" without deploying the strongest squad. That made the Vietnamese team start the match slowly, even stuck in operating the game with difficulty.

Against a Philippines team that was rated lower than Vietnam, there were 8 changes compared to the previous match against Indonesia. There were 4 brand new faces who had not played a single minute, Chau Ngoc Quang, Dinh Thanh Binh, Nguyen Thanh Binh and Bui Hoang Viet Anh, who were used from the start. On the artificial turf field at Rizal Memorial, the Philippine players played very resiliently, leading to the Vietnamese team almost losing to their opponents. The group of "key" players of Vietnam thought they could rest, but in the end they still had to enter the field. For more than half of the second half, coach Kim Sang Sik had to use almost all of his attacking players: Tien Linh, Tuan Hai, Van Toan, Vi Hao, plus Hoang Duc and Van Vi.

The draw thanks to Doan Ngoc Tan's goal in the 7th minute of injury time prevented the Vietnamese team from winning a ticket to the semi-finals in Group B - ASEAN Cup 2024. In that match, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team played well, not too bad but not really excellent. The biggest weakness that the players revealed was the ability to solve the match and the shining moments of the stars. However, the Vietnamese team has exposed many of its limitations in recent matches. Most likely, in the match against Myanmar, coach Kim Sang Sik will make adjustments.

This match against Myanmar is very remarkable, it is likely to mark a milestone for the Vietnam team. After 14 years, if Nguyen Xuan Son is able to play, he will become the next naturalized player to play for the Vietnam national team.

Nguyen Xuan Son will be a necessary addition to the Vietnamese team's finishing problem. The striker from Nam Dinh Steel Blue is currently the number 1 star of the V-League. The naturalized player from Brazil has a level far beyond that of domestic strikers. This season, Nguyen Xuan Son has scored 14 goals in all competitions for the team from Thanh Nam. Last season, he scored 31 goals in the V-League alone. It is rare for the Vietnamese team to have a naturalized player at the peak of his form.

In the past 3 matches, the Vietnamese team always had problems scoring in the first half, even though the opponent was considered weaker. In the next 45 minutes, the Vietnamese team also had many difficulties in approaching the opponent's goal when the opponents focused on defense with a deep formation. If they could score in the first half, everything would be easier for the Golden Star Warriors.

Myanmar's task in this match is quite difficult. Because, to be sure of getting a ticket to the next round, they must defeat Vietnam, even have to win with a large margin.

The last time Myanmar got a point against Vietnam was in 2016, when the two teams drew 0-0 in the group stage of the regional tournament that year. Last year, at the AFF Cup 2022, Vietnam won 3-0 against Myanmar in the group stage.

In the previous round, Myanmar had a hard-fought victory over Laos. Despite being rated higher, Myanmar was at times behind. Two goals in the final minutes of the match helped them come back to win 3-2 and keep their hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the ASEAN Cup 2024 alive.

In this match, coach Myo Hlaing Win of Myanmar will not have the service of star Maung Maung Lwin because he has received 2 yellow cards. This is a big loss for this team because Maung Maung Lwin is the number 1 star of the team at this time. Without this midfielder, the Myanmar team will have a hard time finding a complete replacement when playing against the Vietnamese team.

The match between Vietnam and Myanmar will take place at 8:00 p.m. on December 21. Despite the advantage of "heavenly time - favorable terrain - harmony of people", the Vietnamese team must not be subjective and must still be on guard against the visiting team Myanmar, because football always has unpredictable variables.