Equalizer for Ninh Binh and Dong Nai

The home team’s game technique to play small ball, find and technical hit big challenge with waterlogged field that made them fail to overcome Dong Nai, which was considered the weaker team.

Van Quyen (white shirt) does not contribute much to the home team. Photo: Duc Dong.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the Dong Nai team had a pretty good game before the home team. They proved to be quite suitable to play the ball long and high in the rainy conditions which were better to promote their capabilities. The 17th-minute goal from Dong Nai also came from such situations  when Dinh Hiep headed after a long pass from the left and luckily the ball bounced to defender Gia Tu then went straight into the net.

The early goal made Ninh Binh play disorderly. The middle came didn’t fulfill their task with the strikers due to the lack of the core Dinh Van Ta and Tran Manh Dung.

In contrast, Dong Nai aimed to play defense with the majority in the home yard and created quite sharp counterattack when chances came. 10 minutes after scoring the opener, Dong Nai nearly increased the lead to 2-0 when Victor Nyirenda broke through in the right side before moving on to Duc Thang who flipped the ball but it hit Ninh Binh player. It was Victor Nyirenda who also missed another chance after 31 minutes when the goal was not scored in favorable situations.

After consecutively inferior situations, Coach Nguyen Van Sy had to replace Ngoc Lung by Van Quyen to enhance the ball possession of the middle. The presence of Van Quyen brought more positive features for the game of the ancient capital team. It was Van Quyen who had a classic free kick at the 41th minute but failed to find his first goal in Ninh Binh shirt as goalkeeper Minh Phong was extremely excellent to make a save.
In the context that the duo strikers Timothy – Moussa were behind their form, Ninh Binh still had midfielder Danh Ngoc who knew to shine in difficult moments. He was about to score in the first half when his shot went narrow of the post in a messy situation in front of Dong Nai goal. In the first minutes of the second half, Danh Ngoc had a pass from the left side but the ball was on the outside and swirling on the net to create an amazing goal.

After this goal, Ninh Binh kept putting more pressure on the Dong Nai side while this team only focused on counterattack with duo Victor – Henry up front. While Ninh Binh could not create many chances, Dong Nai was about to score the second goal in the last minutes but luckily for the home team, striker Victor had consecutively unsuccessful shots.

The loss of two points in a rainy day made Ninh Binh continue to stand in underdogged group and the chance for top 3 was increasingly narrow. In contrast, Dong Nai continued to show their progress in V-League playground and would likely to relegate.