The match between Vietnam and Syria on June 20 is a special match for coach Philippe Troussier personally, as the French coach will compete with coach Hector Cuper.

Coach Hector Cuper is one of the most experienced faces at the national team level. The 67-year-old strategist has 30 years of coaching experience, from 1993 to the present. Cuper's career is divided into two periods, with 21 years (from 1993 to 2014) of coaching at the club level, taking charge of teams from big to small such as Inter Milan, Valencia, Real Mallorca, Huracan, Lanus, Real Betis or Parma. From 2015 to the present, the Argentine coach has been coaching at the national team level.

Coach Hector Cuper became famous in the early 2000s, typically with the achievement of helping Valencia FC reach the Champions League final for 2 consecutive years (1999-2000, 2000-2001). Before that, Mr. Cuper led Real Malloca to the Spanish Super Cup championship (1998), or helped Lanus win the Copa Commebol. The Argentine coach is very good at raising small teams, with a pragmatic counter-attacking philosophy.

However, coach Hector Cuper is also nicknamed "the king of runners-up", with 8 defeats in the finals, a rare event in history. Mr. Cuper's losing streak in the finals began in the 1997-1998 season when Mallorca lost the Spanish King's Cup final, and a year later lost the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final (a tournament for national cup champions, later merged into the C2 Cup). Moving to coach Valencia, coach Cuper helped the team make a double... defeat in the Champions League final in the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons.

In fact, for Valencia, reaching the European Cup final was a miracle. Coach Cuper also proudly emphasized that although he lost the Champions League final, he only lost to very strong teams such as Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

However, the curse of second place followed Coach Cuper when he moved to coach smaller teams. In the 2009-2010 season, the Argentine coach and Aris Thessaloniki Club (Greece) lost the national cup final. In 2015, when he moved to lead Egypt, Coach Cuper made a splash with 17 unbeaten matches in the first 20 matches in charge.

It seemed that Mr. Cuper had helped revive one of the greatest icons of African football, but once again, the "second-place king" curse returned. In the final match of CAN 2017 (Africa Cup of Nations), Egypt lost to Cameroon, despite having taken the lead. Coach Cuper himself was criticized because after opening the score, Egypt continued to attack, but eventually paid the price for defensive mistakes.

After leaving Egypt, Mr. Cuper has been on a journey through a series of teams such as Uzbekistan, Congo and now Syria. Coach Cuper was appointed to lead the Syrian team in early 2023, after the Middle Eastern team lost all 7 matches in 2022. The Argentine coach has only coached 2 matches since the beginning of the year, winning 3-1 against Thailand and losing 0-1 against Bahrain.

Coach Hector Cuper has a lot in common with coach Philippe Troussier. Both have worked in Europe, Asia and Africa, have extensive coaching experience, and often make their mark on small and medium-sized teams. However, while Mr. Troussier pursues a controlling style of play, Mr. Cuper seems more certain and pragmatic.

The match between two of the most experienced strategists working in Asia at 7:30 p.m. on June 20 promises to be very interesting.