Defensive errors lead to 0-3 loss for India

The 3-0 scoreline wasn’t a surprise. Vietnam have made the 2017 under-20 World Cup finals and were in the last round of the Asian qualifying cycle of the 2022 World Cup. At 97, they may be a mere seven slots above India in FIFA rankings but that, as was evident in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday night, is not the only metric to measure progress.

Yet, what would rankle is the manner in which India leaked the goals in the three-team Hung Thinh invitational tournament. Phan Van Duc struck with a 10th minute side-volley after what seemed like a communications breakdown between goalie Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and centre-back Sandesh Jhingan. Nguyen Van Toan made it 2-0 in the 49th minute when Anwar Ali totally misread a high ball and the half-time substitute didn’t need a second invitation. It was 3-0 in the 71st minute when substitute Nguyen van Quyet made the most of Jhingan’s headed clearance header falling favourably for him.

That said, Sandhu made at least three good saves and Vietnam repeatedly sliced through India’s midfield to get into scoring positions. As a consequence of a longer league and more structured youth development programmes, Vietnam have players in the lower leagues of Europe and Japan and are not the team India beat in the same city in 2002 and in Pune in 2010 when Sunil Chhetri got a hattrick. They had more players comfortable on the ball and competent under pressure and in the front third.

India tried to stay compact and hit on the break. Ashique Kuruniyan dragged his shot narrowly wide in the 26th minute after Akash Mishra, the left wingback was India’s best outfield player, found him. Mishra again delivered a good cross for Sunil Chhetri but his 45th-minute header almost took the paint off the upright while going out. India could have also hit through a counter-attack in the 78th minute when Liston Colaco squared but Brandon Williams couldn’t make the connection with a slide.

After the clean sweep in the Asian Cup qualifiers and the 1-1 draw against Singapore on Saturday, this was India’s first loss in five games. This was also the first time in those games that they played a team ranked higher.