India and Vietnam Aim to Give Tough Challenge
India and Vietnam Aim to Give Tough Challenge: Although football between India and Vietnam is supposed to be friendly, the match will still provide a test for the coaches and their players. Coach Igor Stimac expressed how it would be easier if he could rely on his team during matches like these but just because it’s an away game does not mean that nothing can go wrong for India.
In 2010, two events took place in Vietnamese football. One being them losing to an Indian team that had Sunil Chhetri as their striker and the other being them being the first-ever Asian team to play at the historic Maracana Stadium.
A football association was going through elections for the presidency, and there were attractive cash prizes to players who won regional tournaments. The Vietnamese president at the time, Nguyen Trong Hy, argued that Vietnam should start naturalizing players from other parts of the world – an argument that continues to be made in Indian football today, but only for Indian-origin players.
In 12 years, Vietnam’s senior team has entered the quarterfinals of the AFC Asian Cup. They are perfectly placed to make it to the 2026 World Cup, where Asian countries will have 8.5 quota spots (eight direct qualifiers and one team going into intercontinental playoffs). Their youth teams are doing well with private investment in football academies at the youth level. There isn’t a cash prize for winning competitions as they insist on investment in grassroots football.
India’s rivalry with Vietnam is highlighted by the significant gap in performance between these two countries in recent history. India did not have a whole lot of success at international football tournaments, while Vietnam has gone on to produce their own star players like Trần Đình Bình. This international friendly will be a battle for the number two spot in Asia.
In this case, FIFA rankings are not indicative of any of the teams’ true footballing merit. While Vietnam were playing in the third round of World Cup qualifiers against the likes of Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia, India drew 1-1 against a mere 13 places behind them in world rankings.
There are areas of improvement for Singapore to develop as a soccer team. They were not very organized or well positioned, and their performance against India only reflected that difference between their FIFA rankings and reality in the 90-minute stalemate.
India’s first game of the tournament wasn’t exactly a bright spot, missing key players and hardly pushing quality leads. Ashique Kuruniyan had some good moments on his own.
As India have had their first-choice center-back pairing of Sandesh Jhingan and Chinglesana Singh back for their match against Vietnam, they will not have Apuia Ralte, a midfielder who can sit at the center of the pitch to pirouette for days around opposition players. Ralte, who is currently in Belgium on a training stint with Lommel SK – an affiliate club of City Football Group – has helped India through progression forward on the pitch. Despite being in his thirties, Sunil Chhetri is playing well and will lead the Indian attack again.
Igor Stimac, head coach of Croatia’s team in the 2018 World Cup, said Vietnam would be a tougher opponent than India and that the Croatian players would need to concentrate on the task and execute better. The Croat was recently announced as an extended agreement by their country until 2023 due to their success in international tournament.
This will be a very different game against an opponent who is much stronger than we are. Our approach must change to reflect this, but we also need to maintain focus on our defense too. They pose a threat from long-range shots and crosses that we need to know how to deal with.