Expert: "U23 Vietnam will overcome the pressure of Indonesian audiences to win the championship"

(Dan Tri) - Former VFF Vice President Duong Vu Lam assessed that U23 Vietnam has its own advantages, we have the ability to overcome the pressure of the audience to defeat U23 Indonesia and become the Southeast Asian champion.

The final match of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship between U23 Vietnam and U23 Indonesia will take place at 8:00 p.m. tonight (July 29) at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (Jakarta, Indonesia). This is one of the largest stadiums (capacity of more than 77,000 people), the most famous and enthusiastic in Southeast Asia.

Even the Vietnamese national team faces many difficulties when playing at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, let alone the young players in the age group of 23. However, former VFF Vice President Duong Vu Lam still believes in the ability to win of the team under coach Kim Sang Sik.

Mr. Duong Vu Lam assessed that we have our own advantages, the important thing is that the players overcome the weaknesses that appeared in the past matches, we will have a chance. Before the final match, Mr. Duong Vu Lam talked with Dan Tri reporter.

U23 Vietnam is waiting for the moment to be crowned Southeast Asian U23 champion (Photo: VFF).

Equal opportunity

How do you rate the chances of U23 Vietnam against U23 Indonesia in the final match of the U23 Southeast Asian tournament?

- I think both sides have equal chances of winning the championship, starting from the fact that the two teams are equally strong. U23 Indonesia has the advantage of playing at home at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, their audience will create huge pressure for U23 Vietnam players. However, we also have our own advantages.

The U23 Vietnam players reached the final with less effort than the U23 Indonesia players. We beat the Philippines in the semi-finals after 90 minutes of not too intense play. Our players were hardly exhausted.

On the contrary, U23 Indonesia had to go through a long semi-final match with U23 Thailand, they had to decide the winner or loser by penalty shootout. Since the beginning of the tournament, U23 Vietnam has played one less match than U23 Indonesia (the young team of the archipelago country had to play 3 group stage matches, U23 Vietnam only played 2 matches), that is also an advantage.

The important thing is that the U23 Vietnam players must overcome our own weaknesses, which have appeared since the beginning of the tournament.

Vietnam U23 players are completely healthy before the final match (Photo: VFF).

What are those disadvantages, sir?

- The U23 Vietnam strikers did not take advantage of their opportunities well. The final match will certainly be different from previous matches. The nature of the final match is more tense, the opponents will play more closely, so opportunities will not appear easily. Therefore, when the opportunity comes, we must take advantage of it, because the opportunity will not come back.

In defense, the U23 Vietnam players need to cover each other better. First, I have to praise the one-on-one ability of the U23 Vietnam defenders, they are not inferior to their opponents in this area. However, the ability of the defenders to play in a "slanted line" is problematic.

Specifically, the positions of covering each other are not good, we still let the opponent pass the ball behind the defenders. The U23 Vietnam team has lost two goals since the beginning of the tournament, stemming from poor defensive aerial situations, at the same time, the covering between the central defenders is not good, and the marking is not tight.

How to neutralize U23 Indonesia's throw-ins

Talking about the fact that the strikers of U23 Vietnam missed many scoring opportunities, what do you think is the reason?

- Let's take a look at the forwards. A few months ago, the striker who was considered the best in the 23-year-old age group of Vietnamese football, Bui Vi Hao, was injured. This caused a big loss for the U23 Vietnam team in international tournaments this year.

The strikers named in the list for the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, some are playing in lower leagues, some do not regularly have official playing positions at clubs in the V-League.

U23 Vietnam is ready to overcome the pressure at the "fire pan" Gelora Bung Karno (Photo: VFF).

Viktor Le, who was promoted to play as a second striker, was disappointing at this year's tournament. He seemed to lose his composure in his first time playing for the Vietnamese national team in a major international tournament, leading to some bad decisions.

For these reasons, the strikers of U23 Vietnam at the moment are not really effective in finishing. The way to overcome this is that the coaching staff needs psychological therapy to help the players stay calm. If our players can stay calm in the final match, they will be reasonable when facing decisive situations against U23 Indonesia.

U23 Indonesia has very dangerous throw-in situations. What should U23 Vietnam do to prevent such situations from the opponent?

- It is true that the home team has very typical throw-ins. However, throw-ins like this by U23 Indonesia cannot do anything to U23 Thailand in the semi-finals. U23 Vietnam can study the video, study how U23 Thailand resolves throw-ins by the young team from the archipelago country, and find a way to control them.

In fact, although Robi Darwis of Indonesia U23 threw the ball very hard, the trajectory of the ball was more predictable than similar throw-ins by Pratama Arhan of the Indonesian national team. Darwis threw the ball without spin, the ball sometimes flew straight into the opponent's goalkeeper's hand.

As for U23 Vietnam, we need to be proactive in similar situations. For example, the goalkeeper must control the home team's 16m50 area, proactively receiving balls from throw-ins, instead of passively waiting for the central defenders to clear the ball.

I think goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien of U23 Vietnam has an ideal physique (1m91), capable of controlling throw-ins from U23 Indonesia. The remaining task is for the central defenders to mark well, both to "share the fire" with goalkeeper Trung Kien and to guard against "second balls" from the opponent.

Play to your strengths in set pieces

As for U23 Vietnam, do we have any other weapons that will force the opponent to be wary, sir?

- The strength of U23 Vietnam is the ability to exploit set pieces in attack. Coach Kim Sang Sik's students need to continue to promote this strength. The central defenders of U23 Vietnam play well with their heads when joining the attack, and our midfielders take good free kicks, bringing the ball right into the range of their teammates, so that they can exploit it.

Even U23 Indonesia is afraid of U23 Vietnam's set pieces, because we have scored quite a few goals from free kicks since the beginning of the tournament. Opponents also face psychological pressure if we are awarded free kicks.

Captain Khuat Van Khang (11) has very good free kick ability (Photo: VFF).

Sometimes, if we just handle a set piece well, U23 Vietnam will create the highlight of the match, which can greatly influence the outcome of the entire final match.

Is there any player in the current U23 Vietnam team that you trust in set pieces in the final match?

- Khuat Van Khang. This player has a very good ability to take free kicks, causing many teams in Southeast Asia to have difficulties. However, since the beginning of the tournament, Khuat Van Khang has rarely taken direct free kicks in front of the opponent's goal.

This could be due to two possibilities. Firstly, Khuat Van Khang is currently losing form in free kicks. In the training sessions of U23 Vietnam, his free kick success rate is not high, so coach Kim Sang Sik has to give priority to others to take free kicks in official matches.

The second possibility is that coach Kim Sang Sik deliberately hid his cards in the past stages of the tournament. He did not want to reveal his best free-kick player in the earlier matches. Whatever the reason, things will likely be different in the final.

If it's because of form, in theory, Khuat Van Khang's form can completely improve after he played throughout the tournament, he certainly has a better sense of the ball, a better sense of space, to take better and more accurate free kicks.

If it was because coach Kim Sang Sik was hiding his cards, then this was the final match, and the Korean coach would have used all his cards to increase his chances of winning the U23 Southeast Asian Championship.

Thank you for the conversation!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/chuyen-gia-u23-viet-nam-se-vuot-qua-ap-luc-khan-gia-indonesia-de-vo-dich-20250729002151842.htm