Simon McMenemy: The 3 Vietnam goals were gifts from us

The head coach of the Indonesian national team, Simon McMenemy had to accept the painful reality after seeing his team lost at home for the third time in Group G of the 2022 World Cup qualification. This time, it was Vietnam who achieved a 3-1 win over Indonesia at Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium in Bali on Tuesday.

According to McMenemy, his players had already played well in the match. But because there were lapses in concentration, they allowed Vietnam to score three goals.

“The players played well up to 70-80%, defending well with good organisation. But 10 minutes of lack of concentration and we were punished. The three Vietnam goals were gifts from us. Without disrespecting Vietnam, they are a young team but with respect and have played a long time together, said McMenemy in the post-match press conference.

The trainer from Scotland is also urging his team to learn from the ways of Vietnam particularly in corner kicks, it is one of the instructions that he gave to Rudolof Yanto Basna and his team mates. But still Indonesia failed to anticipate those situations.

“Especially in the box, we cannot dived into challenges. If this is Liga 1 maybe it won’t be considered a foul but at the World Cup level, any contact inside the penlaty box can lead to a penalty. That is how international football is, slight mistake and it becomes fatal.

“We’ve seen Vietnam play in the Asian Cup, this is a different team to us. They are a new generation who are brave to take risks. They are young but experienced. If we hope to succeed without effort, then it is difficult. We must remember that we were banned from the previous World Cup, so how can have expectations to qualify this time?

“How can we think about qualifying when supporters in the first match put up rude banners and tried to intimidate the opponents? On top of that, we must also fix our league schedule and of course the team must improve,” he added.

Follow Goal Malaysia on Instagram