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Roundup: Vietnamese football team criticized for violent performance at World Cup qualifier

Xinhua, May 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnamese football team is criticized for its violent performance against Thailand during their first match at World Cup qualifier.

After losing 0-1 to Thailand at the match held late last week at Rajamangala National Stadium in Thailand' s capital Bangkok, Vietnamese football fans and experts have criticized coach Miura and the team for violent performance. Vietnamese players received five yellow cards and one red card during the match.

The Vietnamese team recorded 27 fouls during the match, while that of their Thailand rivals were nine.

Le Thuy Hai, a 69-year-old former coach of Vietnam' s V-League team Becamex Binh Duong said Wednesday on The Thao & Van Hoa (Sport & Culture), an edition of the Vietnam' s state-run news agency, that football is a game and players are not supposed to hit their rivals like enemies.

Nguyen Van Thong, a Vietnamese football fan commented on The Thao & Van Hoa on Wednesday that "I agreed with Le Thuy Hai on this. I will support them even when they lose with nice play" .

"Vietnamese football fans don' t feel ashamed when the team lost the game but ashamed of their playing style. If they don' t change the style, Vietnamese fans will turn their backs to the Vietnamese football," reader Le Ngoc commented on VNExpress online newspaper over the issue on Wednesday.

Reader Quoc Si wrote on VNExpress online newspaper that "Vietnamese players should be fined with more than one red card. I did not see them playing football but hitting others" .

Sharing the same viewpoint, reader Giang Nguyen said, "I am disappointed with the performance of Vietnamese players as it was violent" .

Miura, the Japanese coach of the team, meanwhile, said on VNExpress online newspaper on Wednesday that this was just the first match of Vietnam. Everything can change if they perform better in the other matches. Thailand may receive a different result when they meet Vietnam for the second match, Miura said.

The 52-year-old Japanese coach said there is no chance for Vietnam to compete for the group' s top place at the qualifier. The target of Vietnamese team is to earn 13-14 points in the remaining seven matches of the first qualification round to secure a place in the second round as well as to enter the final round of the Asian Cup 2019.

The draw of 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup divided 40 teams into eight groups of five teams each for the FIFA World Cup qualification. The top eight teams and four best group runners-up will progress to the Asian World Cup qualifying round as well as the Asian Cup. The qualification will be played under home-and-away round robin format.

The remaining 28 teams will compete for the other 12 places at the Asian Cup, which has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams for 2019.

Vietnam was included in Group F together with Thailand, Indonesia, Chinese Taipei and Iraq. Endi