Ahead Of Vietnam Vs Indonesia At The 2021 SEA Games, Shin Tae-Yong Is Not Afraid Of The Pressure From The Host

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JAKARTA - The Indonesia U-23 national team coach, Shin Tae-yong is ready to escort his team to play against Vietnam in the inaugural match of the SEA Games Vietnam 2021. Ahead of the match which will take place on Friday, May 6 at 19.00 WIB, the coach also emphasized that his team will not be afraid of pressure from the hosts.

The meeting of the two countries will take place at the home of Vietnam at the Viet Tri Stadium. As the host, Vietnam clearly has the advantage because they get full support from the fans.

Of the total capacity of 16,000 seats, all tickets are known to have been sold out since Tuesday, May 3. This will obviously make the home camp get an injection of enthusiasm from their supporters.

This condition will also bring pressure to the Garuda camp. Moreover, the Indonesian national team has not felt the atmosphere presented by the fans in the stadium for a long time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though he was aware that there would be great pressure from the hosts, Shin Tae-yong was not afraid. He said the advantage was slightly in favor of Vietnam as the host, but the national team could also turn things around if they fought hard.

“Vietnam is playing at home so it is advantageous. But this is a football match, if we work hard and fight our best we will have good luck too," said the coach during a post-match press conference quoted by Antara.

"So, if there is a loss, we will use it as an advantage," he added.

Since taking charge of the national team in early 2020, Shin Tae-yong has never felt the atmosphere of a match with the audience at all. Even when the trial match in the country had to be passed without the presence of spectators.

Regardless of the situation, during his time as Garuda's tactician, the South Korean coach twice escorted the team against Vietnam. The first was during the 2022 World Cup Qualification match and the second was in the 2020 AFF Cup (2021), but at that time Indonesia failed to record a victory.

Reflecting on that meeting, this time Shin Tae-yong was determined to win his first victory with Indonesia over Vietnam. Moreover, this time the opportunity is also very wide open, because this time they will face different players in the previous two matches.

"I admit (at the two previous meetings) Vietnam is above us. What happened must be acknowledged, but the performance of Indonesian players is increasing and players are starting to have careers abroad,” said Shin Tae-yong.

"So, in the next two years we can compete better against Vietnam. In the last two matches we did lose, but not necessarily for this match (SEA Games)," said Shin confidently.