Akhil Rawat
AIFF Media Team

NAM ĐỊNH, VIETNAM: The story of India and Vietnam's football rivalry goes long back. Between the 1950s and 1970s, India played several tight matches against the erstwhile South Vietnam national team in multiple Merdeka Cups and Asian Games tournaments. But meetings have been rare in the 21st century, and Saturday's match in Nam Định will only be the fourth time India will face unified Vietnam in senior internationals.

All the previous three were also friendly matches. In 2004, Vietnam nicked a 2-1 win in the LG Cup in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2010, a Sunil Chhetri hat-trick powered India to a 3-1 friendly win in Pune. The most recent fixture came in 2022 in Ho Chi Minh City when the hosts won 3-0 in the Hưng Thịnh Friendly Tournament.

The current Vietnam squad has 13 players who featured two years ago, including two goalscorers Nguyễn Văn Toàn and Nguyễn Văn Quyết. 10 among India's 23 made the trip to the south-east Asian nation in 2022 - Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Anwar Ali, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco, Vikram Partap Singh, Amrinder Singh and Naorem Roshan Singh.

In many ways, the current situation of Vietnam and India is similar. Both are in a rebuilding phase under a new head coach after their exit from the second round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. While India missed out by two points behind Kuwait, Vietnam finished Group F behind Iraq and Indonesia.

Vietnam, ranked 10 places above India at 116th, appointed former South Korea international Kim Sang-sik as the head coach in June, with whom they have a victory against Philippines and three defeats so far. In the September window, they lost both matches against Russia (0-3) and Thailand (1-2) in the LPBank Cup friendly tournament in Hanoi.

The year 2024 hasn't been the best for both India and Vietnam. The Blue Tigers are yet to taste victory since November 2023, and the Golden Star Warriors have 10 defeats in their last 11 matches. Both sides are desperate for success and Manolo Márquez expects it to be a close contest.

"I think Vietnam have good players. We are playing away from home. It will be difficult for us, but equally for them too. We are looking physically better than before now, but we can still be better. Our league started less than a month ago, and if you ask anyone involved in professional football, you know that you're not in your best condition until you play at least 10-12 matches in the season.

"But that doesn't matter as we are playing now. Vietnam are in a similar situation since their league has also completed four rounds," said the India head coach.

Like India, Vietnam's entire squad also plays in their domestic league - the V.League 1. It contains a mix of senior and young players. Some of the experienced names include veteran striker Nguyễn Văn Quyết, centre-back and captain Quế Ngọc Hải, goalkeeper Đặng Văn Lâm and midfielder Đỗ Hùng Dũng. With 21 international goals, Nguyễn Tiến Linh is the highest scorer in the current squad. Midfielder Nguyễn Quang Hải spent a season in the French Ligue 2 with Pau FC a couple of years ago.

The majority of the Vietnam players are below the age of 26, including exciting prospects like Nguyễn Thanh Bình, Khuất Văn Khang and Nguyễn Thái Sơn. 20-year-old forward Nguyễn Đình Bắc is the youngest player in Kim Sang-sik's side and already has two goals in 10 appearances for the Vietnam senior team.

Vietnam will miss the services of forward Phạm Tuấn Hải and defender Hồ Tấn Tài due to injuries. Some regular names like Đỗ Duy Mạnh, Nguyễn Tuấn Anh and Phan Văn Đức are also not part of the squad for the friendly against India.

The 27-member Vietnam squad have been training since October 5 at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre in Hanoi. They will play a practice match against reigning V.League champions Thep Xanh Nam Đinh FC on October 9 before travelling to Nam Đinh on October 11, the eve of the match.

Manolo Márquez's men held their first training session in Vietnam on Monday evening at the Nam Đinh Sports Palace, a training ground situated just two kilometres from their team hotel. On Tuesday morning, strength and conditioning coach José Carlos Barroso oversaw a 45-minute gym session. Márquez admitted that getting more days to train ahead of the match will be beneficial for the team. The Blue Tigers have planned to train every evening before the matchday to try and gel as much as possible and gain rhythm, fitness and tactical knowledge.