The Russian national team defeated Vietnam in Hanoi in the first match of the 2024/2025 season. The unbeaten streak under Valery Karpin has been extended to 12 matches.
Our national team included three representatives of CSKA and Lokomotiv, as well as one player each from Dynamo, Zenit, Spartak, Krasnodar and French club Le Havre. Army forward Musaev made his debut in the national team.
Karpin warned on the eve of the match that the Russian national team would simply not be in this match for several reasons:
“It’s very humid and hot here. It will definitely be difficult. The pitch is, let’s call it, imperfect. This match is the most humid of my career. Nowhere is it as humid as here. Should the Russian team beat Vietnam by a wicket? You go out on the field and you stand here. Can you beat someone by a wicket? You’ve been standing for five minutes and you’re already sweating.”
Despite the difficult weather conditions, the Russian team started aggressively: they took the ball and territory, and most importantly, through high tackles, they tried to win back the ball as quickly as possible after losses. Our only foreign player in the starting eleven, Kuzyaev, was heavily loaded and committed a couple of serious fouls at the beginning of the match. Karpin’s team played with a quartet of defenders and two triples in the middle line and in the attacking group. Vietnam defended using a 5-4-1 formation.
However, having the advantage, the Russian team did not do the most important thing – not to create chances. The goalkeeper of the Vietnamese national team Van Lam Dang or simply Lev Dang (a native of Moscow, a graduate of Spartak and Dynamo) was bored for a long time without work, although, of course, he really wanted to prove himself in the match with Karpin’s team. Attempts to send the ball into the penalty area with the help of crosses did not bring results – passes from Krugovoy, Karavaev, Pinyaev and someone else lacked precision. Another option to pass the ball forward was to throw it behind the defenders to the mobile Musaev.
Interesting facts about Vietnam:
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The pitch did slow down the ball movement, but that wasn’t the only problem. More creativity was required from the Russian players. On the other hand, our team calmly dealt with the home team’s counterplay. Lunev didn’t have any work to do either. True, one day I was lucky when there was a shot into the box from Litvinov and Karavaev – striker Thanh Binh Dinh simply couldn’t handle the ball well, otherwise they would have been one-on-one. But in the 24th minute, the Russian team opened the scoring, taking advantage of the first goal-scoring opportunity! Our team finally organized a more cunning attack down the right flank – Pinyaev failed to score on a pass from captain Oblyakov, but the ball deflected by Dang was collected by Musaev. The striker crossed into the goalkeeper’s box, the goalkeeper made a mistake on the way out, and Kuzyaev was way ahead of the curve – he headed the ball into the net.
The video rights belong to the RFU.
The Russian national team performed better at the end of the first half. At the same time, Karpin, for no apparent reason, replaced Morozov with another debutant Paltsev from Dynamo Makhachkala. Before the break, home defender Thanh Tiung Nguyen made a unique double save. He twice cleared the ball from the goal line after Krivtsov’s shot, which created a chance for Kuzyaev, and Pinyaev’s shot. Of course, our attacking players should have shot better in this episode. In addition, the short Pinyaev managed to gain air in the Vietnamese penalty area a couple of times and again came close to scoring. The ball seemed to fly into the net, but suddenly it darted to the right of the post.
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Karpin made two more changes during the break. The next Russian debutant was Zenit goalkeeper Latyshonok, and Prutsev came on the field instead of Krivtsov. Fresh Letty could have missed an early goal when our team missed a tricky set piece played by the Vietnamese team. Pinyaev had no time for Tuan Phan, who rushed into the penalty area, but his volley went wide. The Vietnamese in general began to play more boldly, wanting to bounce back.
Our boys started to get involved and then it turned out that Vietnam knows how to control the ball and attack positionally. In addition, the locals made dangerous passes to their forwards. Newcomer Paltsev was twice left alone in space against the Vietnamese, but he was not inferior either in speed or martial arts. And at the hour mark, the Russian national team scored a most curious goal! Dang made another mistake. However, the goalkeeper fell victim to the poor Vietnamese turf. The defender passed the ball back to the goal, Lev immediately wanted to kick it forward, but the ball, which he hit, bounced back. Dang missed the ball and it went into the net.
The video rights belong to the RFU.
With the score 2:0 in favour of the Russian national team, the fourth debutant in our national team was Lokomotiv striker Vorobyov. Thus, there is only one player left in the current national team – the young Loko midfielder Batrakov. In the 77th minute, Vorobyov took part in a quick scoring attack, which was completed by the combination Oblyakov – Prutsev – Musaev. The CSKA striker chose his position in goal well and scored in his first match. An ideal debut for Tamerlan.
The video rights belong to the RFU.
In the end, our team began to lose concentration more often, perhaps they relaxed because of the big score and did not run fast. The Vietnamese team made a couple of very dangerous attacks, Latyshonok had the opportunity to show himself: he saved with a beautiful save. The locals even almost caught up with Karpin’s team in shots (8:11, on goal – 2:4), but they failed to score a goal.
