Coach Hoang Anh Tuan put aside the case of Nguyen Van Truong
*Malaysia - Vietnam: 4:00 p.m. Thursday, August 24, on MetaSports.
"I forgot that incident. I need to focus on the semi-finals," Mr. Tuan replied when asked how to handle Nguyen Van Truong. "Right now I'm just focusing on the Malaysian coach sitting next to me."
Mr. Tuan refused to reveal whether the 23-year-old midfielder could play in the semi-finals.
In the 82nd minute of the last match of Group C yesterday, when Vietnam was leading the Philippines 1-0, Van Truong got angry and rushed to Faris after being fouled. The midfielder of Vietnam thinks that the opponent has stepped on his leg. Teammates, referees, even members of the coaching staff had to intervene, leading to a chaotic situation. Despite receiving a yellow card, Van Truong continued to collide with Faris in injury time.
After the match, coach Hoang Anh Tuan expressed frustration, revealing that he wanted to withdraw Van Truong at that moment. According to the Khanh Hoa military leader, kicking a ball is playing with the ball, not fighting, and Van Truong's actions are unacceptable.
Mr. Tuan was born in 1968, is a former Vietnamese football player. He used to lead Khanh Hoa and Hai Phong to kick the V-League, before moving to take charge of Vietnam's youth teams, from U16, U17 to U20, U23. He was the one who led Vietnam U19 to the semi-finals of the 2016 Asian U19 Championship, winning tickets to the U20 FIFA World Cup in 2017.
This year, due to many U23 tournaments, Mr. Tuan was assigned to take charge of the second team with the core being the U20 group to attend the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 tournament. Although the gameplay is not really convincing, the team still ensures the goal. victory over Laos and the Philippines to top Group C, into the semi-finals against Malaysia - the top team of Group B after coming upstream to beat Indonesia 2-1 and beat Timor Leste 3-1.
According to Mr. Tuan, with the current correlation, tomorrow's match promises to be interesting. "Hopefully the two teams will have great performances," he said. "For me, it's good for Malaysia to win, of course it's better for us to win. The important thing is that the two teams compete to improve together, bringing Southeast Asian football to close the gap with the level of Asia."
Leading Malaysia is still coach Elavarasan, who lost 1-2 to Vietnam in the group stage of the 32nd SEA Games three months ago. "Vietnam is a good team. They are the defending champions and are also performing well in this year's tournament. The strength of Vietnam is that they have a man sitting next to me who is the head coach," coach Elavarasan said while looking. to his colleague Hoang Anh Tuan.
Elavarasan then avoids the question of which player on the Vietnamese side is the most dangerous. The Malaysian head coach said he considers the opponent in terms of the overall play, not the individual. After that, this military leader emphasized again the strength of Vietnam, but also affirmed that his team was ready and hoped the two teams would enjoy the match.
