June 26, 2022
The last 18 months have been a difficult time for football in Vietnam. These diaries reviewed Round 1 of the 2021 V.League 1 season in January 2021, but after three interruptions for Covid outbreaks the season was terminated in May after 12 rounds of matches, without any champion being declared, or any side relegated.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/01/review-of-2021-vietnamese-vleague-1.html
The 2022 season started in February, but after round 4 was completed on March 13th, only two catch-up matches for Ha Noi have since been played, and nothing at all since the last 16 of the Vietnamese Cup on April 11th.
Since promotion to the V.League 1 in 2018, Nam Dinh have been the best supported club in the country each year, despite their highest placed finish being only 11th , making them perhaps the Vietnamese equivalent of Newcastle United ! Despite that, they were in 4th place when the 2021 season was cancelled with a 6-0-6 record, with their form at home being 4-0-1.
Nam Dimh’s three overseas players in 2021 were Brazilian strikers Rodrigo Dias and Wesley dos Santos, and Ivorian forward Oussou Konan. Dias and Konan were the league’s joint leading goal scorers with 7 goals. Dias is still with the club, but Wesley returned to Brazil to join Serie D side Caxias, whilst Konan left to join Saudi Arabian side Al Bukiryah. Tragically though, Konan died in January, aged 32, after a sudden illness. Ex-Hamilton Academicals German/Kosovan midfielder Gramoz Kurtaj played one match in 2021, scoring twice in the 3-0 home win over Ha Noi, and then immediately joined former club Thanh Hoa !
Joining Rodrigo Dias in 2022 are two more Brazilians, namely centre-back Allison from Serie C side Paysandu, and striker/attacking midfielder Marcio Marques, who signed after two prolific seasons with Nagaworld in Cambodia’s C-League.
Ha Noi have won the Vietnamese title on 5 occasions, including consecutive championships in 2018 and 2019. However, they were in an unexpected lowly 7th place when the 2021 season was brought to its abrupt end, with a 5-1-6 record.
Ha Noi’s foreign players in 2021 were Brazilian attacker Bruno Catanhede, who has since joined Indonesian side Persib Bandung after scoring 3 goals in 8 games, Brazilian forward Geovane Magno, who has joined Viettel after claiming 6 goals in 11 games, and Ugandan midfielder Moses Oloya ( 47 caps ), who is now at Hai Phong.
Instead, Ha Noi have signed Serbian strikers Vladimir Siladi and Duro Zec, who these diaries featured when TSC Backa Topola achieved an unexpected 4th place in the 2019/20 Serbian SuperLiga, thanks in part to the goalscoring exploits of this duo, and Nenad Lukic, who is now plying his trade with Honved in Hungary. Completing Ha Noi’s foreign legion is ex-Rijeka and Zrijnski Mostar Croatian forward Josip Ivancic, who joined from Sabah of the Malaysian League.
Today’s match was a catch-up from Round 3 in early March. Ha Noi started the day in second place after a 0-0 home draw with Ho Chi Minh, a 1-0 home win over Thang Hoa and a 1-0 win at Viettel. A victory would see them take over top spot. In contrast, Nam Dinh, were near the foot of the table, but had only played twice, a 0-0 home draw with Gia Lai and a 1-2 loss at Hai Phong. Disappointingly for them, they had also been knocked out of the Cup at Hong Linh Ha Tinh, going down 2-3.
Ha Noi started the match with three members of the most recent Vietnam national squad in their line-up, namely midfielder and captain of the national side Do Hung Dung, midfielder Truong Van Thai Quy and defender Do Duy Manh. Vladimir Siladi also started, but Ivancic was only on the bench, and Zec was missing entirely. Nam Dinh had no players in the national squad, but all three of their Brazilian started. Also in their XI was naturalised Uganda midfielder Geoffrey Kizito ( 39 caps ), who is now known by his Vietnamese name of Tran Trung Hieu after playing in Vietnam since 2012.
Betfair made Ha Noi 4/5 favourites, with Nam Dinh at 14/5 and the draw at 5/2.
The home crowd were in their normal raucous form, but it was the visitors who started the best, and calmly controlled possession in the early stages. Indeed, they should have opened the scoring in the 6th minute when a nice flick from Nguyen Van Quyet enabled Vu Minh Tuan to beat the offside trap, but the Ha Noi forward saw his shot blocked at close range by keeper Dinh Xuan Viet.
Nam Dinh’s Marcio Marques caught the eye with shaven sides of the head and a dyed yellow moustache, and he was involved in the first moment of controversy in the 14th minute. After fouling Nyugen Thanh Chung, the Ha Noi defender reacted angrily and put his head against the Brazilian’s forehead and with a clear forward motion, but was fortunate Marques didn’t over-react and fall to the ground to leave the referee little option to show a red card. As it was, Chung didn’t even get shown a yellow.
Nam Dinh’s first shot on target arrived in the 33rd minute. Ha Noi lost possession just inside their half, and a delightful pass with the outside of the foot put Tran Mahn Hung in space on the left. The midfielder cut-back inside past the sliding defender but his shot was straight at the keeper and easily saved.
Cheered on by their fanatical support and brass band, Nam Dinh continued to press and Marques came close with an acrobatic shot on the turn as Chung bravely tried to make a defensive header, but the attempt went narrowly wide of the near post.
With the game remaining goal-less at the interval, Ha Noi engineered the best move of the match in the 54th minute. A flowing move saw the ball played forward to Siladi on the edge of the area, who chested the ball off to Tuan on his right. Tuan played an instinctive first-time pass back to the Serb, whose first time shot from the angle of the penalty area whistled inches past the far post.
It was Ha Noi’s turn to press and from a long corner the ball was headed back into the penalty area where the on-rushing Tuan unfortunately screwed his half-volley well wide.
When the opening goal finally arrived in the 66th minute it was slightly unexpected. A swerving 30 yard shot from Hoang Xuan Tan crashed back from the Ha Noi crossbar, and when the visitor’s defence eventually repulsed the attempts to play the ball back into the danger zone, they broke quickly on the counter attack. Do Hung Dung’s dangerous through pass looked like putting Van Quyet clear on goal but Allison made an important sliding interception. Unfortunately for the Nam Dinh defender, the ball rolled in the direction of Siladi who from 20 yards sent a snap-shot rifling into the bottom corner and inside the keeper’s near post.
Nam Dinh responded with renewed intensity although the Ha Noi defence looked in control. However, keeper Nyugen Van Cong will be embarrassed when he sees the replay of his writhing in agony on the floor after a slight accidental collision with Rodrigo Dias. The slightest touch was made to look like there had been a sniper in the stands !
Ha Noi’s lead only last a little over 10 minutes though. The visitor’s defensive line backed off as Marcio Marques received the ball from Rodrigo Dias, and the Brazilian was allowed to turn and with hardly any back-lift, shoot low into the far corner past the keeper’s despairing dive from around 20 yards. After celebrating wildly with the home fans, Marques was shown the yellow card after taking off his shirt.
Rather than Nam Dinh launching a frenzied finish to win the game, Ha Noi kept possession, and came close to claiming the winning goal themselves with just under 6 minutes left to play. The ever-impressive Siladi, who was clearly the class act of the evening, took control and then laid off a precise ball to tee up Tran van Kien on the edge of the area. Unfortunately for the away side his shot struck the outside of the post and went off for a goal-kick.
Neither side were able to generate any goal-mouth pressure after this, and after three minutes of added on time, both sides had to settle for a point, which overall was a fair result.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6reB92LcOhw
