Youth football and valuable lessons for everyone

The latest story happened almost at the same time, at the same time, in the two young teams considered the strongest in the 2022 Southeast Asian U19 tournament taking place in Indonesia. That is U19 Vietnam and U19 Thailand, winning first and second place in Group A, completely eliminating the host U19 Indonesia from the semi-finals after the group stage. However, U19 Vietnam lost 0-3 to U19 Malaysia, a team that was not highly rated before. Similarly, U19 Thailand unexpectedly "fell off the horse" 0-2 to U19 Laos.

U19 Vietnam lost 0-3 to U19 Malaysia.

Both of the above unexpected defeats followed the same scenario: the team attacked more, dominated, had more chances but could not score a goal, fell into the opponent's counter-attack trap and conceded. The higher the team, the more impatient they became, the more psychologically burdened they were, losing themselves and the opponent scored every time they got the ball. This is not new, nor surprising in top football. The problem is that youth football cannot be called top level, so they attack continuously but it is like hitting a wall, then losing the match without knowing it, it is the first time they have stumbled and cannot find a way out, so surprise after surprise... suddenly and everything gradually slips out of hand.

U19 Vietnam unexpectedly conceded a goal at the end of the first half, and played very well at the beginning of the second half, with continuous opportunities but could not penetrate the opponent's net. While struggling, the opponent quickly attacked the ball when the whole team advanced and a simple coordination on the wing was enough for the striker to cut in and cushion the ball into the dead corner of goalkeeper Van Binh. The third goal was an inevitable consequence when the losing team advanced and focused on rushing into the narrow path ahead. Just a moment of carelessness was an opportunity for the team considered weaker but played more tenaciously, more coherently, with a more comfortable and excited mentality.

U19 Thailand also fell into the maze of unsuccessful attacks and unexpectedly lost that match. People can find all the objective and subjective reasons, putting all the responsibility on the head coach, on the individuals who made mistakes. But we cannot forget an unwritten rule in football: attacking a lot but not scoring goals, losing a match is not new, and it is not strange for highly rated youth football to play deadlocked and lose a match.

Coach Dinh The Nam of U19 Vietnam was “sad but not angry” with his players after the heavy defeat, affirming that weak mentality caused the team to not achieve the desired results. That is completely true, but perhaps it should be added that the coach himself did not solve the psychological problem well in the knockout match, so even though in the match when facing disadvantages and losing the score, the players continuously advised and encouraged each other, things still did not go in a positive direction.

Not only U19 Vietnam but also U19 Thailand, which is considered to be higher than its opponent, has no inferior professional ability but does not have enough courage and sudden power to overcome the multi-layered defensive walls that the opponent actively set up and intercepted.

In this context, it is impossible not to mention the failure of the U19 Vietnam team of Cong Phuong-Xuan Truong-Tuan Anh, also on Indonesian soil at the U19 Southeast Asia tournament 2014. Clearly, this is a generation of outstanding talent in Vietnamese youth football from the past to the present. In the group stage, U19 Vietnam won 1-0 against the host U19 Indonesia and many other formidable opponents, only to meet the host team again in the final match. The aggressive play of U19 Indonesia, combined with the leniency of the referee, caused U19 Vietnam to lose their elegant play and had to suffer a bitter defeat.

Here, it is correct to say that U19 Vietnam cannot withstand the “heat”, meaning it goes bankrupt when facing tough opponents, but it is also correct to say that youth football is unstable, winning and losing. The important thing is that both U19 under Cong Phuong and U19 under Van Truong today have one thing in common: early blooming talent, playing well against opponents of the same age, winning many glorious matches but also losing matches that should not be lost, especially at decisive moments.

Of course, no team, no matter how talented, always wins without ever losing. In football, there is a story of "jeux", the story of predicting each other's moves, destroying each other's playing style, and youth football inevitably has to go through those winding, dangerous paths to move forward. The failures of U19 Vietnam and U19 Thailand mentioned above are therefore a good lesson, an experience for everyone. Hopefully, after this bitter defeat, the U19 Vietnam and U19 Thailand players will know how to stand up, return to being themselves, to at least not let similar failures happen, to know how to overcome simply and neatly against any opponent?