Indonesia coach blames pitch after losing again to Vietnam

Before the second leg, Shin had said that Indonesia was as strong as Vietnam. However, after the second leg, he seemed to change his mind.

“Congratulations Vietnam for another clean sheet,” he told the post-match press conference. “They played well today, and they really are a strong team.”

The 52-year-old coach apologized to Indonesian fans for failing to win the tournament. At the same time, Shin was positive about the potential of Indonesian football, although he said much work needed to be done.

The South Korean coach blamed the quality of the pitch at My Dinh National Stadium for adversely affecting Indonesia’s playing style. He compared the My Dinh pitch to other stadiums like Viet Tri and Thien Truong, where the Indonesia’s U23 squad played at the SEA Games last year.

“It’s true that we didn’t play as well as at the first leg at Bung Karno,” Shin said. “But Vietnam are used to playing at My Dinh and Indonesia are not. The pitch today was not as good as the ones we played at during the SEA Games 31. This is one of the reasons we didn’t play up to our expectations.”

Two early goals in the first and second half by Nguyen Tien Linh gave Vietnam the win. Indonesia failed to create any real scoring opportunities throughout the entire game.

Shin refused to comment on the difference between Indonesia and Vietnam because he said he needed “to analyze the video of the game to get the most accurate perspective.”

However, the Indonesia coach also admitted that Indonesia lacked concentration, and basically conceded the game at the start of each half.

“I told the players to be careful with the first five minutes and the last five of the game,” he said. “But in the first five, the goalkeeper wasn’t ready and got defeated. We conceded the second goal after leaving a player unmarked. Those are expensive lessons.”

With the 0-2 defeat, Indonesia haven’t won against Vietnam in nine encounters at the national and U23 levels over the past five years.