Both Park Hang-seo and Akira Nishino were upset because their team couldn’t get a win in the World Cup qualification clash Thursday. VnExpress International reports.
In the post-match conference, Park admitted that Vietnam almost lost the game but also had many chances to score in Thammasat University stadium.
“Vietnam had a tough game against Thailand, who is truly the rival. We had to play on their home ground and almost conceded a few goals. However, we also had some opportunities to decide the match but too bad we couldn’t score.”
Park praised his players for having given their best, but said Thailand have played better thanks to their new coach Akira Nishino.
“Nishino is an experienced coach. I believe Thailand will develop under his lead.”
Forward Nguyen Van Toan, who had more than one great chance to score for Vietnam, showed his disappointment for missing so many shots.
“I’m not happy with myself because I missed great scoring opportunity, especially at the start of the match. The wet and slippery field was really challenging for me,” Toan said.
Nishino is also frustrated as Thailand only got a draw with Vietnam on home turf.
“Playing at home, we wanted to win so bad. But the team only got one point today. I find that result very embarrassing, but we will continue to fight as Thailand have seven more games to play,” Nishino said.
“In the first half, Vietnam played defensively which caused us some trouble in deploying the ball. We had to pass around and try to reduce their stamina. The second half is better as we switched to playing long balls and find more space to exploit but still couldn’t score. We will have to work on our finishing skill,” Nishino explained Thailand’s tactics in the game.
Vietnam and Thailand both had great chances to score but the game ended up goalless because of the lack of accuracy from their players.
Thailand will play Indonesia on September 10 while Vietnam will get to play at home against Malaysia on October 10.
By Lam Thoa.