27 Set-Piece Repetitions and a Question the Table Never Answers

This afternoon at Hòa Xuân Stadium, I counted 27 times a group of SHB Đà Nẵng players repeated the same corner-kick routine. No goal, no shouting from the coaching staff. Only the ball going into the same dangerous zone, then repeating, repeating. The match ends, but the data does not. Numbers do not lie; we just have not asked them the right questions. In the 242-match database of SHB Đà Nẵng that I built during the 2026 lockdown, 74 goals came from dead-ball situations. That 31.4% rate shows this team once survived on set pieces. Their problem is not fitness, not the player list. The problem is whether they can still keep the habit of repetition like today's session. When the 2026 V-League was cancelled after 12 rounds, I wrote the article “The 12 Lost Rounds.” That day I was the only reporter present in the Hòa Xuân dressing room. The players stood in silence. I opened my notebook and saw the most important thing: SHB Đà Nẵng's optimal lineup had never played a full match together. Players do not forget technique. They forget operational discipline at dead balls. In the last three seasons, 34% of SHB Đà Nẵng's conceded goals came from set pieces. Not because they are weaker than opponents. I reviewed the footage and noticed the defenders were marking men while the ball was aimed at the far post. One wrong shift, and the whole defensive block drifted two meters. People remember goals. I remember what leads to goals. Outside noise often says SHB Đà Nẵng lacks a clinical striker. The deeper story lies in a small detail: the position of the third defender when the ball leaves the free-kick taker's foot. If the team keeps its shape, they do not need a superstar to defend dead balls. They only need to stand in the right place before the ball arrives. Vietnamese football does not lack technical players. What is missing is someone who keeps the rhythm for the whole team in that half-second. This season, instead of waiting to see who scores, watch whether the team repeats the same set-piece three times in one match. Before asking who wins, ask who keeps discipline. The answer will be in my notebook, waiting for the table to need an explanation. The 12 lost rounds are gone, but in my notebook they remain. Every season is a chapter; I am just the bookmark keeper. And today my bookmark says clearly: 27 repetitions are not boredom. That is the discipline this team is trying to rebuild after the days when the league was left unfinished.