Vietnam football team leaders, are quite confident and comfortable being singled out as unknown team in Group D of the Asian Cup. After some Iranian press articles wrote about Vietnam and the fact that all their players are domestic league based. with little international exposure hence a difficult group of players to assess, team leader Duong Vu Lam spoke up and welcomed the fact that Vietnam is of unknown quality.
Iranian newspaper Varzeshi had a commentary that, at first glance, everyone felt a sense of disregard for the ability of the Vietnamese team – Iran’s rival at table D.
The author has identified Vietnam as an unknown team because it does not have any famous players. Their players only play in domestic league and no one plays abroad, Varzeshi called the Vietnam team an unknown quality team. In an interview with Thanh Nien Newspaper, the leader of Duong Vu Lam expressed another opinion.
Head of the delegation Duong Vu Lam said that “the Iranian report expressed disdain, proving that they are afraid of Vietnam”
‘”admittedly, at the Asian Cup, we don’t have a name. But in my opinion, this is an article of encouragement, the Iranian newspaper said that they are very concerned and shy about us.” said Mr. Lam.
Besides, leader Duong Vu Lam also encourages young Vietnamese players to keep up their good spirits, compete while knowing that the Iranians know us well as they did in Asian Games 2014 at U23 level.
“The press in their country says so, we should not be so excited or frustrated. The answer is just to be calm. It is important that we prepare well, know people who know us, dare to set great goals. Doing so, the Vietnamese team will be stronger in will and fighting spirit and will have a chance to achieve the goal of knocking down the big teams.” said Duong Vu Lam
Iran’s coach Carlos Queiroz , has a different viewpoint : “Vietnam cannot be underestimated”
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Before the news that some Iranian newspapers expressed disdain for Park’s team, Coach Carlos Queiroz of Iran has completely disagreed with what was written in the press “These are very misleading statements. And I am no stranger to the subjective statements of this kind for a long time. They (Iranian sports press) thought that we would win very easily in the Asian Cup and it would be easy to defeat all opponents to win the championship, ” Mr. Queiroz answered on the Asian Football Federation website (AFC).
‘People think Iran will win against Vietnam. It is very wrong. They just won an important tournament in Southeast Asia. Iranian newspapers may not be interested, but we are very interested in these developments of Vietnam team. We respect every opponent, and appreciate it all.”
Iran and Vietnam has never met at senior level, however, at youth level , Vietnam has been a strong opponent for Iran and even managed to humiliate Iran U23 in Asian Games 2014. In that match goals from, Vo Huy Toan . Mac Hong Quan, Tran Phi Son and Ngo Hoang Thinh ensured the match ended in a humiliating defeat for the Iranian side which scored a consolation penalty goal by Mohsen Mosalman. Team Melli will be glad that none of those players are in the Vietnamese squad in Abu Dhabi to repeat their goal scoring feat.
Midfielder Nguyễn Trọng Hoàng (30 years) is the most senior member of the squad with 57 caps and 12 goals . He plays for FLC Thanh Hóa.
The Captain of Vietnam is the 25 years old defender, Quế Ngọc Hải who plays for Sông Lam Nghệ An.
Vietnam Coach is the South Korean Park Hang-seo
