ASEAN Cup Diary: Day 6
After missing out on the actions of day 5, hopefully day 6 of the ASEAN Cup will fill in those actions by bringing dramas and goals!
Group A has once again finished with two favourites securing all three points while demonstrated a slightly dominating performance. Since I was not able to catch both matches live and rewatch them afterwards, there will be a missing day for the group stage. But I will not let that happen with Group B, so let’s get into the two matches of the day!
Laos vs Philippines
Having displayed good football against Myanmar and could not come away with more than a point, Philippines decided to start this match with almost the same starting lineup as the last match. However, two changes were made as Michael Baldisimo and Amani Aguinaldo started from the beginning. For Laos, they will look to build on a decent performance against Indonesia, and having earned their first point, hopefully they would not feel as pressured to play for something.
It did not seem like I missed much during the first 15 minutes as Philippines continued to dominate possession. However, they have only managed to create three shots so far, with Laos’ 5-4-1 defensive block continued to stand still and highlight the away side’s problem of ball progressing inside the final third. They have also had a few corner situations in the same period, but they also could not create anything significant from those corners.
Laos still relied on counter attacks to get the ball into the final third and a couple of those counters led to corners for the host. And, fortunately, Laos was able to find the opening goal from one of those situations where Baldisimo headed the ball home for an own goal. In contrast, the Philippines have started to find a breakthrough but they still needed that precision to get the ball into the net, especially after Bjørn Martin Kristensen hit the post and Baldisimo’s shot right after got blocked on the goalline.
Now with the opening goal and a lead, it was understandable to see Laos dropping deeper to defend and allowed the Philippines to control the ball even inside of the middle third. They have also gotten stuck into challenges more often to take the opposition’s attackers down in an attempt to disrupt the Philippines’ possession-based style. So, not only did the Philippines’ problem inside of the final third got more exposed, but they now had to chase down a lead with 30 minutes left to play.
It continued to be the trend of playing the ball wide and sending crosses into the box for the Philippines, potentially with the hope that one of Laos’ players would make a mistake that they could then exploit. However, the host’s defence still continued to stand strong and dealt with the crosses that come in from both open play and corner situations. This left Kristensen with not a lot of goal-scoring chances to create anything meaningful. Eventually, one of those crosses from Paul Tabinas connected and found Sandro Reyes, who put the ball comfortably into the bottom left corner.
The floodgate has opened since the Philippines was getting closer and closer to a second goal. They got one disallowed while there were a few chances denied by the Laos’ keeper. But the rest of the match have been plagued with fouls by both teams in an attempt to disrupt the match and hold on to the result.
Summary
A hard-fought battle by both teams, but once again both Laos and the Philippines came away with only a point in hand. Laos still went out with a defensive-first mentality and focused on counter-attacks to create goal-scoring opportunities. It worked at times, but they lacked the composure to create anything meaningful. Meanwhile, the Philippines tried to play good football but they also lacked the precision to put Kristensen and other attackers in good scoring positions, which hurt them in breaking down Laos’ discipline defensive block. In the end, neither teams did enough to earn more than a point, which was disappointing considering both Laos and the Philippines impressed me with their matches so far.
Vietnam vs Indonesia
With a one-day break advantage, Vietnam entered this match with almost their strongest lineup, most noticeably the return of Filip Nguyen in goal and Nguyen Quang Hai in midfield. A few key players remained on the bench, but that was arguably the best team that they could have filled. Meanwhile, Indonesia had a few disadvantages as Marselino Ferdinan missed out due to receiving a red in the previous match, and both Pratama Arhan and Rafael Struick were on the bench. It would be interesting to see whether the away side would enter this match with an attacking mentality for a derby.
A cagey first few minutes as there were a few challenges thrown here and there, but it was still clear that both teams intended to control the ball whenever they had the opportunity, with the opposition also happy to sit back and allowed them to play out from the back. So far, though, there have not been anything too noticeable after the first 10 minutes.
Still nothing too noticeable coming from the first 30 minutes or so. Vietnam had more control of the ball and they tried to attack down the wings, but even that and their long passes in behind still could not get their striker Nguyen Tien Linh into better goal-scoring positions. Indonesia have also dealt with crosses coming into the box very well, which frustrated the host even more. Meanwhile, the away side looked stuck and out of ideas for an attack, to the point where they had to bring on Struick to lead the line. Struick was already looking tired throughout the match against Laos and he did not contribute much to their attack at home, so I was curious to see how much could he bring to the table against Vietnam here.
The half ended with nothing between the two teams, which did not surprise me considering Vietnam looked like they had no ideas of what to do when they had the ball. A lot of passing around in between the centre-backs, trying to get the ball wide for a hopeful cross, or a long ball in behind that the Indonesian defenders were able to deal with comfortably. The same continued to happen inside the early minutes of the second half, but Vietnam needed to be beware more since Indonesia’s most lethal weapon, Arhan, had already come on the pitch.
Same story after 70 minutes. At this point, I would rather not repeat things for the sake of boring you, the readers, but things have not changed much whatsoever. The only change that I was able to see, was Indonesia pushing forward a bit more through a couple counter-attacks that also led to subsequent corner and throw-in situations. It could have presented a bit of a tough time for Vietnam, especially when Arhan was now on the pitch. But so far, still nothing noticeable.
And there it was, that one time when the Indonesian defenders could not get close to the ball and allowed Tien Linh to bring the ball down and assisted Nguyen Quang Hai just moments after. It could be a bit heartbreaking for Indonesia as their defensive shape have withstood pressure for just under 80 minutes, and conceding a slightly unimpressive goal like that might hurt the players’ confidence.
Summary
While the usual expectation for a Vietnam-Indonesia derby tends to be fiery or full of dramas, there were a lot of factors before the match that significantly lowered that expectation. From squad strengths, to the one-day break advantage, and Marselino’s red card against Laos. These factors might have influenced Indonesia’s decision to enter the match with a defensive mentality and hoped that they could, once again, rely on set pieces to find goals, or at least, draw the match. For about 78 minutes, they did achieve that against an unspectacular Vietnam side that just looked to pass around a lot and sent hopeful crosses into the box. But football is cruel sometimes, and one single moment where the defenders could not reach the ball led to the only goal of the match and three points to put Vietnam more solid at the top of the table.
Honestly, day 3 of Group B was a slight let down with the Philippines continued to disappoint inside of the final third and the biggest match of the group turned out to be quite boring. The only positive that I can see from this day was Laos continued to impress me with how they played, and even though they only came away with a single point, they looked better and better as the tournament progresses.
Another one-day break will follow as it gives the teams a chance to regroup and recover. In the meantime, to fill in your reading gap, I have written a new article focusing on Malaysia’s new manager Peter Cklamovski. It would be great if you can show some support for it and let me know what you think about the article! Thank you, and see you very soon for day 7 of the tournament!
