ASIAN Cup and the story of upgrading

The Iranian team has won all 3 matches in the group stage and is a candidate for the championship of the tournament with a very convincing performance as many people know.

Let's look back at the statistics of the 2023 Asian Cup to understand more about this story. In the ongoing continental tournament, the Iranian team has the best average height of 183.8 cm, while the team with the shortest average height is Vietnam at only 175.4 cm. The weight index also belongs to Iran with 73.9 kg and Vietnam is third from the bottom with 71.7 kg, while Thailand has the "lightest" squad with 69.6 kg. Obviously, the Vietnamese players will face countless difficulties when the opponent plays high balls. And the fact that Vietnam concedes goals from low balls and low balls is another story about speed, coordination and connection in the overall picture.

Of course, it should be added here that, despite being the “heaviest” in the tournament, the Iranian players attacked and defended rhythmically, flexibly, and handled each ball extremely smoothly. While comparing the Vietnamese and Thai players, it will show that our players are clearly heavier and less graceful than their neighboring opponents…

In the past, when struggling to find the most suitable playing style for Vietnamese football, people often said that the "strengths" of short, lightweight players were agility, quick turns, and the ability to confront and neutralize tall, slow players. The reality on the field shows that these are just vague, unfounded judgments. Football is a game of peak physical strength for 90 minutes and more, each phase of quick, neat handling within a narrow range and the exploitation of gaps. To do so, players must have speed, the ability to break through in short and long distances, have endurance, and be able to endure... which, frankly speaking, are very unfamiliar to players in the region in general and Vietnam in particular.

More than once, Mr. Troussier said frankly that players in the V-League only play as required for about 70 minutes, the rest is dead ball time, slow ball entry, walking and all kinds of ways to prolong time, causing the match to fall apart, drag out... Currently, in the Vietnam National Team, usually only young midfielder Thai Son runs an average of about 10 km per match, equivalent to players in the English Premier League. This also explains why the French coach called on the V-League to improve quality, as a basis for selecting personnel for the national teams. Not to mention that in a long tournament, young players can meet the requirements better than older players, who have experience but do not necessarily meet the physical requirements and the desire to contribute.

And not only in the Vietnam National Team, the Korean coach Shin Tae-yong in the Indonesian National Team before this ASIAN Cup also set a very high standard for his students. That is, they cannot "run more than they think", must "look at Messi and learn", that "he not only looks at the ball but also pays attention to what happens around him", "observe, think, move, shoot. Play football like that". Most recently, this coach continued to make "unbelievable" demands such as each player must run at least 11-13 km per match, must ensure continuous performance in 4 matches at the club to be called up to the national team...

To see, the requirement to improve is being urgently and strictly set for any team, especially in the Southeast Asian region if they want to go deep and far in a continental tournament like the ASIAN Cup for example. Because if they do not improve, do not set difficult and unimaginable goals like above, then in the end, the lowland will still be the lowland.

Also to see, we should support practical ways, correct voices related to youth training, to the quality of V-League, to sending young players abroad to compete and inviting players from overseas Vietnamese resources to really accelerate and improve the quality of Vietnamese football. Just "look at others and think about yourself" and you will know, you will see that Vietnamese football is in a mess, full of work to do and the matter of winning/losing in each match, the tournament will continue for a long time, we cannot be hasty or thoughtless as we have known, known for a long time./.