There were two extra set of eyes in Jakarta when Indonesia take on the Philippines in the last group match last Sunday.
In fact, there were also two more in Bangkok when hosts Thailand entertained Singapore at the same time.
And certainly both men were not there to catch the atmosphere but were rather taking down notes and pointers for Vietnam head coach Park Heng-seo.
The Korean tactician was not taking any chances as he draws up plans for the next stage of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 and where he had sent his assistants to ‘have a look’ at the teams playing in the next round.
“We have achieved our target (which was to make the semifinals). Now it is important that we plan for the next round,” said Hang-seo.
“We have not been able to have a look at teams from Group B as our concentration was wholly on making the semifinals. Now that we have, we need to make sure that we get some notes on the other teams.”
Vietnam arrived into Bacolod City yesterday on a chartered flight that saw them flying straight to the island from Hanoi instead of having to stop over in Manila as they would have had to do.
A few days of acclimatisation would be beneficial to the team now that they have to make do with the absence of striker Nguyen Van Toan to a knee injury and where he will need at least six weeks to recover.
Van Toan had only featured in one match for Vietnam and that was against Myanmar on 20 November.
