This bronze final looks like a tight, careful game where one of these sides finishes without a goal. Malaysia haven't conceded at this tournament, and that includes a 0-0 with hosts Indonesia, who went on to the final. Vietnam arrive tired and are likely to rotate. Their attack has carried them so far, but it looks more fragile than usual.
Start with Malaysia's defence. They kept three clean sheets in the group, scoring 9 and conceding none, and they've kept a clean sheet in five of their last ten. Against Vietnam, though, their attack has run into a wall. They lost 2-0 twice in August, with the same two coaches in the dugouts, and in four of the last five meetings one team didn't score at all.
Vietnam's side of it is about their legs. They played Pakistan on 2 October and came from behind to win 4-2, but the first half was flat. Kim Sang-sik blamed the Jakarta heat for his players losing concentration. Tai Loc, Hoang Hen and Viet Anh couldn't finish that game, and Kim has said he wants to give minutes to players who haven't played much. Quang Hai and Xuan Son already missed the tournament through injury.
Put a reshuffled, tired Vietnam against a Malaysia side that has kept things tight but struggled to break Vietnam down, in the heat of a third-place game, and you get a match with fewer clear chances than either team's goal tally suggests. Vietnam have kept a clean sheet in six of their last ten, and Malaysia have been just as hard to score against. One clean sheet in this matchup looks more likely than goals at both ends.
