1. No need to respond to every comment. If you do not like anyone's comments, disregard him as much as you can. Eventually he gets tired and stop posting comments you do not like. 2. We qualified to the World Cup 5 times in the history but our best Asian Cup result was third place since I became a football fan. We were deserved do go to the Final and win it at least once but It did not happen. 3. Personally I do not consider our-self favorite this time but the favorites do not always come out winners. Anyway best of luck to our team.
Thank you for your rational replay. #1 excellent point. As for #2 and #3 all I can say is good luck. People like you I want to see happy.
To be exact, Vietnam reached the semi-finals in Asian Games 2018. As regards some big guy in Asian football like Japan, it's not the case that Vietnam was unlikely to have any positive result over this kind of big guy in a game, as they once won against South Korea in 2003 (right after Korea's success in the 2002 World Cup). Many years had passed, the Vietnam's football remained unchanged and confined in the realm of potentiality (always potential!) until the first generation from our youth academies (which recently have been taken seriously for developing and focusing on proper youth training, which in turn had been inspired initially by the establishment of 'Hoang Anh Gia Lai–Arsenal JMG Academy') made it into the pitch for Vietnam's (junior and senior) squads. Hope that they will rise out of their potentiality field after this tournament.
Vietnam fans after the victory over Jordan Interestingly, our next opponent has a Vietnamese player (Ritsu Doan). He is highly talented and has been linked with clubs like Manchester City and Ajax.
They already grew out of "potential"...No more coming to big tournaments and "learn"...They have chances against big guys now...Japan is in the process of "grooming young players" for Olympics and 2022 WC qualifiers. Japan coach used almost all of his roster for Asian Cup so far. Now it's a good time to have an opportunity to beat them.
Iran is the underdog in next match. Our players should be more careful on their chances. Specially Azmoun needs to be more clinical.
Iran the underdog against China? A team whom they finished 10 points ahead of in World Cup qualifying just a year ago? Um, okay.....
If there are upsets in the quarter finals they will likely occur on our side of the draw. We haven't exactly been setting the world on fire so far and Qatar have been playing decent football. I think Iran and Japan will likel;y win their quarter finals comfortably, especially as both of them dipped out at this stage in 2015 when favourites to advance. I don't think they will stuff it up two tournaments in a row.
I have a feeling 'Nam is gonna beat Japan. This Japanese team is even softer than the Koreans back in '96.
In FIFA rankings, Iran at 29 and China at 76...Like saying Japan(50) is the underdog against Vietnam (100)...lol https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/#AFC A little confidence won't hurt...
It's our dumb clown of a coach that always uses this kind of terminology. He uses it to preemptively make excuses incase of a possible failure. But the clueless fans attribute it to "mind games." Personally, I find it silly, obnoxious and inexcusable.
I agree with you about pre emptive excuses. Iran are clear favourites for this game and if you do lose (which can happen) the vast majority of Iranian supporters will be very disappointed (if not downright angry). I would be very surprised if we don't see an Iran-Japan semi final. On the other side of the draw a Korea-Australia semi final is also a strong possibility, but I wouldn't be overly surprised if Qatar and/or UAE make it through. These two quarter finals seem closer to me on paper. I haven't given up on us defending our title just yet, but I have seen enough to realise that we either need to improve around 25% or have a fair bit of good luck at crucial stages to do it.