01/2020 Football: V League Special
Happy new year, everybody! It's that time of year when people start to think of how they should change their lives or better themselves. I mean, probably. I won't but some people pretend they're gonna do that.
And with that in mind the question on everybody's minds is: With their new season just a couple of months away what are the new year's resolutions for each V League team? Well, you need wait no longer! With the help of some questionable Wikipedia research I have all the answers you need.
Becamex Bình Dương Lots of people hope to find a long term relationship in the new year and Becamex should be hoping for the same.... with a manager. They're not far removed from a league double, and while their finishes have improved year on year for the last few years they've also got form for rattling through managers in short order since their formation in 2002. With Carlos Olivieira now joining maybe it's time for them to give themselves a chance to LOVE, y'know?
Dược Nam Hà Nam Định Đội bóng Thành Nam, or "The Wall" if you haven't been keeping your Vietnamese up to scratch, showed us last season just how tough in can be in the tightly contested midtable of V.League 1. Just 13 points separated 3rd and 13th and the club fluctuated between the relegation battle and AFC Cup qualification battles. Their resolution should be to keep journeyman Diogo Pereira, who has found his goalscoring niche in the V. League, in and around the goals as they strive for consistency.
Hà Nội The catchily-nicknamed Purple-Yellows just need to keep doing what they're doing. With three league wins in the last four seasons, a whopping TWENTY players who have their own Wikipedia pages and seven of those having pictures you can tell they're a force to be reckoned with. If their media team resolve this New year to get every player a Wikipedia page we could be looking at one of the great sporting dynasties.
Hải Phòng The Red Tide need to enjoy playing at home more. Last season they won more away than at home which frankly is disappointing for the team who so memorably won the Vietnamese Cup a year after their foundation under the management of club legend Dylan Kerr.
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai The halcyon days of the early 2000s behind them, they just need to try not be so bloody boring. 9th, 13th, 12th, 10th and 10th again in the last five years. That is some mid-2000s Fulham bullshit right there. Nobody wants to be mid-2000s Fulham, aside from perhaps 2019 Fulham.
Hồng Lĩnh Hà Tĩnh They've only existed since 2015 and this is already their third promotion and seem to have been helped by their links to Ha Noi. Ride those coattails, lads!
Quảng Nam I'm already gaining a new admiration for John Arne managing to stay so interested in the V. League and I'm only halfway through.
Sài Gòn Keep the snazzy colour scheme for their kits. After the dark days of trying to find something to write about Quảng Nam the hot pink of Sai Gon's shirts has really lifted my spirits. Look at this snazzy number from 2018. If manager Hoàng Văn Phúc can channel that flamboyance into their play they could escape the midtabe quagmire they've been in since their promotion in 2015 and make an impact further up the table.
SHB Đà Nẵng I was going to write a bit here about their manager Lê Huỳnh Đức as he seems to have gone from being one of Vietnam's best ever players through to being one of the country's better managers. But then I saw they have a player called Nguyễn Thế Hưng. 'The Hung!' He sounds like a medievel king who chose his own royal nickname because he had a, ahem, large opinion of himself. JA can fill in the gaps I'm sure.
Sông Lam Nghệ An Inspire a more dedicated hardcore of fans. Their current supports have not even bothered themselves putting the team's V.League finish for 2019 on their Wikipedia page! Fear not though, I am here to tell you they finish 7th, with about a third of their home games being 0-0 draws. No wonder the fans can't be arsed.
Than Quảng Ninh After a few years tickling the balls of the idea of getting into that AFC Cup group stage qualification spot. They should get a few more Nguyễns in to make sure they have enough players for the extra fixtures as I'm not sure the 9 Nguyễns they already have will be enough.
Thanh Hóa Prepare for life without Italian manager Fabio Lopez. Not because he's amazing and going to get poached. In fact, in spite of his apparent excellent grasp of Lithuanian and his experience of Bangladeshi football Lopez seems unable to fully capitalise on his two years of experience as a professional goalkeeper and now appears to specialise in managing a couple of different clubs per year. Thanh Hóa will be hoping for the skills he showed when he took the Al-Ahli U23s from 6th to second in the glory days of 2018.
TP Hồ Chí Minh Try not to be such a heap of shit against the two relegation-spot teams. If they hadn't dropped five points to the 13th and 14th teams last year they'd.... well, still have been second on goal difference. But still, losing at home to Sanna Khánh Hòa BVN. You'd be fuming wouldn't you?
Viettel Viettel are the army team, so I turned to reading less on their form over previous seasons, how many Nguyễns they have, etc. and looked at Vietnam's human rights record. It's not pretty reading so I'm pretty sure Viettel could turn a 6th place finish of last season into a title challenge this year with a few tactical midnight raids into suspiciously talented opposing players.
Next month: As requested by Spikey, next month's subject will be looking into what the state of Southend United tell us about modern football.
For the benefit of Sincere and Bruh who waited until October or whatever to decide they had an issue with me not putting fixtures in the opening post I can confirm that this month a number of teams will play other teams in a plethora of different combinations in matches of varying importance and interest. Some of these matches will be good, others will not.
