The mysterious 'black bra' and football talent

Accordingly, Coach J. Klopp's team is one of the clubs that scored the most goals from set pieces and dead balls. The latest and most obvious thing is that Liverpool consecutively defeated the world's number 1 team in 2021 Chelsea on penalties in both the Carabao Cup finals (11-10) and the FA Cup (6-5) in the same season when they met each other in these final matches.

For a long time, before the 11m penalty spot, people often called winning or losing just a matter of luck, the difference between luck or not. But for Liverpool, that is the past and has no reason to exist, first of all in the coaching perspective of the famous German coach J. Klopp. According to him, applying new science and technology to the training and competition process is to help the team "score more goals from direct free kicks, corners and penalties".

U23 Vietnam in the joy of victory. Photo: Archive

That is the process by which this team has incorporated data analysis into their training since the 2019-2020 season and is currently applying brainwave reading technology to train mental health and improve the performance of set pieces for players. Remember, Liverpool is experiencing one of the most successful seasons in history (second place in the Premier League, winning two consecutive domestic cups and reaching the final of the most prestigious Champions League in Europe with Real Madrid), the main reason for which is certainly thanks to the application of advanced technology along with many other fundamental reasons.

By the way, it is impossible not to mention a “hot” piece of information related to the story of applying technology and Vietnamese football. That is after the precious goal in the semi-final matchSEA Games 31During the men's football match between U23 Vietnam and U23 Malaysia, striker Tien Linh was so happy with his teammates and fans that he took off his shirt and revealed... a strange black bra?

U23 Vietnam created consecutive opportunities towards the opponent's goal. To be more precise, in the 19th minute, Tien Linh could have opened the score for the red team. Photo: Document

It is a “special technology device” that supports athletes’ training and competition. It is known that since 2019 (the world has been using it for quite a while), Vietnamese players have been using this device to provide data to help the coaching staff optimize performance, prepare well for matches by managing the amount of exercise, monitoring the development of players, not to mention helping to minimize injuries by managing the exact training intensity of each person…

After a long story about using technology to serve the training and coaching of athletes at home and abroad, we would like to return to a question related to Vietnamese football: why have the youth training centers of Hanoi, Viettel, PVF, Hoang Anh Gia Lai, NutiFood... recently always produced young players of higher quality than traditional training centers such as Song Lam Nghe An, Nam Dinh or Dong Thap? The answer always goes hand in hand with the use of advanced technology to test and evaluate the training and development process in all aspects of young players to come up with the most optimal and effective solution possible for each individual?

It is no coincidence that in recent years, Vietnamese football has had players with a height of over 1.8m, good physical strength such as Thanh Binh, Viet Anh, Manh Dung... ensuring good aerial combat ability against the Japanese team at the continental level or any naturalized foreign players in regional teams. In both the recent semi-final and final matches ofU23 VietnamAt the 31st SEA Games, interestingly, from the 65th minute onwards, Mr. Park Hang-seo “read” that both U23 Malaysia and U23 Thailand were gradually losing strength and immediately launched an attack to win. That was due to each person’s qualities, to the fundamental training process, to… the mysterious and new black shirt mentioned above.

The red stands on a rainy day could not witness an exciting match of U23 Vietnam. Photo: Referee

In addition, new technology is “common property” for everyone. The problem is who realizes it early, who has the resources to purchase and use the equipment and the support and analysis team to serve that process. It is not surprising that the new factors of Hanoi or Viettel youth football such as Van Tung, Van Truong, Van Khang… are surpassing their seniors Xuan Tu, Van Dat or Huu Thang, Duc Viet or Xuan Tien who are of the same age and even had higher expectations before.

This long-distance race of course does not only involve technology but also combines many other resources. But surely sports in general, and football in particular, are gradually moving towards applying specific scientific methods and data, “speaking with evidence”, with absolutely no room for “shouting and emotion” as has often been seen here and there?