BEING ranked World No 99, Vietnam should be feeling confident about facing 158th-ranked Malaysia in Thursday’s pre-World Cup encounter at the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi.
But instead, Vietnam coach Park Hang Seo is feeling worried and has doubts about his team’s readiness to take on the much-improved Harimau Malaya.
The 60-year-old South Korean admitted that Malaysia have improved a lot, especially in attack, since their last meeting in last year’s AFF Cup final.
Vietnam, who are the highest-ranked Asean team in the Fifa rankings, see Malaysia’s front line, comprising Norshahrul Idlan Talaha, Safawi Rasid and Mohamadou Sumareh, as a huge threat and will have to come up with solutions to stop the trio.
But the Golden Dragons are also facing problems with their toothless forwards as they have not been scoring regularly.
Hang Seo feels his strikers have not been sharp enough this year.
The coach may take a cautious approach in Hanoi in trying to contain Malaysia.
With both having played eight matches each this year, Cheng Hoe’s side have been far impressive with 20 goals compared to Vietnam’s seven.
Shahrel Fikri Fauzi, who is not a regular, is Harimau Malaya’s leading scorer for the season with four goals, followed Sumareh and Safawi with three each.
Forwards Nguyen Van Toan, Nguyen Cong Phuong, Nguyen Anh Duc and Nguyen Tien Linh are Vietnam’s options in attack for the World Cup qualifiers.
Cong Phuong is Vietnam’s top striker but the 24-year-old has not been getting enough playing time with Belgian side Sint-Truidense with only one appearance so far this year. The other three play in the V-League.
With the United Arab Emirates the only non-Asean team in the group, Hang Seo knows Vietnam need to come through the next two rounds of matches with a solid point-haul against Malaysia and Indonesia in Jakarta on Oct 15, following the 0-0 away draw with Thailand last month.
Having defeated Malaysia 3-2 on aggregate in last year’s AFF Cup final, Hang Seo, having seen recent matches of their Southeast Asian rivals, knows it will be a tough encounter.
“My assistant Lee Young Jin watched their match against the UAE last month and I also watched a clip of that match,” said Hang Seo to the Vietnam media recently.
“I saw some changes in the team and recognised their front line is really sharp, much more than in the AFF Cup.”
Malaysia will be targeting three points as well as their 3-2 win over Indonesia in Jakarta was followed by the UAE recording a 2-1 success in Bukit Jalil last month.
With Malaysia also having injury issues, it would be hard to expect much from Cheng Hoe’s side in Hanoi considering that Harimau Malaya have won only once in eight meetings against Vietnam in Hanoi since 1991.