Retaining ASEAN Championship the only thing on Nguyễn Đình Bắc's mind

HANOI, Vietnam -- Still only 22, Vietnam forward Nguyễn Đình Bắc is not only on the verge of playing a key role in his team's fourth ASEAN Championship crown.

As the joint-top scorer at the tournament currently, Đình Bắc is also in the running to claim the golden boot and become the third-youngest recipient of the award behind a 20-year-old Teerasil Dangda -- who shared it with two other players -- back in 2007.

Intriguingly enough, Đình Bắc's main competitor for the prize is actually someone he shares a dressing room -- with Rafaelson, who also goes by the Vietnamese name Nguyễn Xuân Son, starting the campaign slower but then surging to form with three of Vietnam's four goals in their semifinal triumph over Malaysia.

Neither found the target in Saturday's final first leg against Thailand, although it did not prevent Vietnam for claiming a 2-0 win in Bangkok courtesy of goals from Nguyễn Hai Long and Nguyễn Quang Hải.

But while the golden boot watch will make for an interesting subplot on the second leg at Mỹ Đình National Stadium on Wednesday, Đình Bắc only has one thing on his mind -- and it isn't individual accolades.

"As everyone knows, both Xuân Son and I currently have five goals but neither of us are focused on individual achievements," said Đình Bắc, in Tuesday's prematch news conference.

"If the team can achieve a good result tomorrow and win the title, that will be the greatest and most-prestigious achievement for both of us, and the entire team.

"Tomorrow, whether it is Xuân Son or me, whoever is given the opportunity to play will try to contribute as much as possible to the team.

"We will do everything we can to help the team win and bring happiness to the Vietnamese supporters."

While there is still 90 minutes to go, and potentially more, Vietnam find themselves in a strong position with history on their side, given only once before have a team trailing from the first leg managed to overcome the deficit to emerge triumphant -- although it was Thailand who pulled that off against Indonesia in 2016.

However, Vietnam coach Kim Sang-Sik is adamant his players will not allow any complacency to creep in.

"At this moment, there is still nothing in my pocket," Kim said, while theatrically standing up mid-sentence to gesture at his pockets, drawing plenty of chuckles from the Vietnamese majority among the media present.

"We have not secured anything yet.

"We are in an advantageous position because we won the first leg 2-0 but we still have to win the second leg before we can lift the trophy that we want.

"Tomorrow, we must remain fully focused and avoid any complacency. The players and I will do our utmost to achieve our objective, produce another good performance, win the match and lift the trophy."

It was one of several lighthearted moments that highlighted how relaxed the mood is in the Vietnam camp.

Kim welcomed the suggestion of doing a celebratory dance with Đình Bắc should they win, while also joking that he might have to switch his phone off when asked if he had anyone reaching out asking for tickets -- in light of the match being sold out.

But when a comparison was made to a similarly-jovial pre-game atmosphere ahead of the semifinal against China earlier this year at the AFC U23 Asian Cup, which was followed by a 3-0 loss, Đình Bắc -- who took home the top scorer award at that tournament -- also stressed that Vietnam were in no way taking the second leg lightly.

"We are approaching the match thinking that the score is still 0-0," he added. "We still have one more match to play.

"Tomorrow, we will be playing at home -- and the entire team is extremely focused and determined.

"We will give everything in tomorrow's match to ensure that what happened in the past does not happen again."