1st March: Quy Nhon, Vietnam

After the long day yesterday, we’d envisaged a chilled morning today. However, nobody told this to the people in the building next door who began taking a jackhammer to their flat roof directly next to our 5^th floor room at 7:30! I think the tiredness and constant noise was what probably resulted in my feeling completely overwhelmed and having a brain pop.

Eventually, I got out to go to a café, managing to forget both my cash and card wallets in my haste. Luckily, the café I went to was very quiet and I was able to sit upstairs by myself with a delicious oat milk cappuccino. Apparently, this was made from 80% robusta and 20% arabica beans, which makes more sense to me now after our coffee tasting this week!

A little later, Kaja came to join me for lunch. We shared a distinctly un-Vietnamese but delicious creamy carbonara, and a local favourite of broken rice with pickles and pulled mushrooms. I had a freshly made pineapple juice and Kaja a zesty lime and ginger refresher. I still wanted more, so took a banana flambé with rum as well. All of this, including my coffee, came to about £7. It’s so easy and relatively cheap (for us as foreigners at least) to eat very well in Vietnam.

From there, we took a walk along the completely deserted beach. This is a place for locals rather than being a beach resort, so is very busy for an hour either side of sunrise and sunset when everybody comes out to do their various exercises. Right now, the football goals and volleyball nets sat empty and unused amongst the sand. The only people around were a maintenance crew looking after the lovely palm-filled green space between the road and beach. The coastline is gorgeous as the sand curves around to a green headland with islands beyond. There are so many beautiful looking places to explore in Vietnam that I already want to come back. For now though, I couldn’t manage any more so we went back to the room and attempted to block out the demolition.

After a few hours in bed with noise cancelling headphones on, I was just about feeling up to heading out again.

As luck would have it, there was a match in the top tier Vietnamese League 1 taking place in Quy Nhon tonight. The stadium was really nearby, so I wanted to check it out. Kaja came with me most of the way to grab banh mis from the place we’d been to last night. Amazingly, we both had a baguette filled with herbs, sauces, vegetables, and vegan ‘meats’ then toasted over a fire for 35p each. Footy scran, take note!

I carried on around the corner to the ground, whilst Kaja went for a walk along the beach. My cheap evening continued as a ticket to sit with the hardcore fans was 40,000 Dong (£1.20). The ground was beautiful – an old concrete bowl surrounded by courtyards of trees. Inside, the pitch was surrounded by a running track but from our side-on angle, the action still felt close. I would say attendance was 1,500 – 2,000 with 20-30 away fans having travelled up from Binh Duong down near Ho Chi Minh City.

A large pagoda loomed spectacularly over the corner of the ground, as the sun set behind the mountains opposite. It’s one of the most beautiful grounds I’ve been to! Everyone stood for the national anthem and then we were away. The team of drummers to my right set a beat for their team to follow on dozens of giant drums akin to those found in Chinese drum towers.

The relegation-threatened home side, Binh Dinh, immediately looked to dominate the ball in their 3-2-2-3 build-up shape. Straight away, they were brave in possession, with either a defensive midfielder dropping in or the goalkeeper pushing up to form a situational back 4 to work through the visitors’ press. There were doubts in the week if this game would go ahead due to pitch defects, but you wouldn’t know it from the slick passing. The replacement turf apparently dug up from a local golf course must’ve done the trick!

The away side, Binh Duong, are pushing for the top two, but the apparent gulf between the sides wasn’t clear today. They attempted to build up in possession using a similar shape, albeit with the outside centre backs slightly narrower around the giant middle CB. This negated the need for vertical GK or DM movement to ensure central ball progression. However, one DM did often sit a little deeper in build-up creating a slightly lop-sided 3-3-1-3 shape at times. On the whole though, this was a clash between two similar systems which meant that individual battles would be key.

One of the home midfielders was very lucky to escape an early booking for a deliberate lunge after losing possession deep. Nothing came from the resulting free kick, which was the way of the opening exchanges. Both teams, especially the hosts, forced a few high turnovers but couldn’t fashion any high-quality chances. More drama occurred on 20 minutes as the home captain stayed down complaining. At the next break in play, there was a very long VAR check resulting in the referee making a trip to the screen. I’m not too familiar with VAR having completely ignored top level football in favour of lower leagues and non-league in recent years but assumed this meant a red card was imminent for the visitors’ number 39. To my surprise, the card was yellow! I didn’t realise that was even an option for referees at that point but am glad that the contest remained 11 versus 11.

Late in the half, a sudden moment of quality almost broke the deadlock. After a corner was headed clear, it fell straight to a Binh Dinh midfielder 25 years out. His technique was impeccable, but his luck was not as the volley crashed back off the crossbar.

The second half began with fireworks from the drummers but little of note on the pitch. Binh Duong began the stronger this time but tenacious battling from the Binh Dinh midfield kept them at arm’s length. I was very impressed with the way both teams were drilled in build-up play, setting pressing traps, and the use of cover shadows etc. Just as in the non-leagues in England, the technical and tactical qualities on show have taken leaps forward in the past five to ten years right across the board.

One thing which you wouldn’t see in England, however, were substitutions made by the defending team at corners! Binh Dinh did this in two occasions, but nothing came of either corner. This seems more like a superstitious thing than anything else when players are so well drilled regarding marking responsibilities, so I’m glad to see teams breaking the ‘taboo’. One other thing I’d liked to have seen from either team would’ve been leaving more than one player up while defending corners to really threaten on the counter and force the opposition to leave more men back.

Just as the match looked to be fizzling out, the away side chipped a quick free kick into the box. The hosts were caught napping as after a flick on, the ball was side foot volleyed expertly across the keeper into the bottom corner. The player who flicked it on uncontested looked offside from my angle, but after another lengthy VAR check the goal was awarded. As the clock ticked to 88’, Binh Dinh didn’t have long to respond. Two attacking substitutions, along with chucking the tallest centre back up top as an auxiliary second striker, failed to generate any chances. It was the visitors who almost sealed victory when the post was rattled from a stoppage time 1-on-1. It finished 1-0 to Binh Duong, leaving the hosts in trouble third-from-bottom.

That’s all for today from the blog’s football correspondent, signing off from Qui Nhon stadium.