Vietnamese football with 3 challenges - remaining opportunities

With not many new faces promoted from U23 Vietnam, Mr. Park has to rely on the experience of the old faces. Mr. Park will direct the Vietnam National Team to play the remaining 3 matches in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers against host Malaysia (March 31); visiting team Indonesia (June 4) and travel to UAE (June 9).

UAE, the biggest rival

It is expected that with the large investment of many teams, this year's V.League season, Mr. Park will have a few new faces for the team. Photo: VFF

Our biggest rival is the UAE, which is undergoing major changes both in the coaching bench and in the attack. After firing Bert van Marwijk, the UAE Football Association has chosen Serbian strategist Ivan Jovanovic as a replacement. The coach is very knowledgeable about football in the UAE after leading Al Na Club since 2013, and has won titles such as the UAE President's Cup, UAE League Cup, GCC Champions League for Gulf teams.

In addition to the country's all-time leading scorer Ali Mabkhout with 6 goals, out of a total of 8 goals scored by the West Asian representative in 3 matches, the UAE has just added 2 naturalized players. Mabkhout is currently ranked second in the list of goalscorers in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, only 1 goal behind Omar Al Somah (seven goals) of the Syrian team who was absent in the match against Vietnam at My Dinh Stadium.

With the addition of Argentine striker Sebastian Tagliabue and Brazilian striker Caio Canedo, who has played for Botafogo and Internacional, the Vietnamese team's defense will have to struggle in the next match.

UAE is currently 5 points behind Vietnam but has played 1 point less and has 3 out of 4 home matches left. If they win all 4 matches, they can completely rise to the top of Group G. The mandatory condition is that we must have 6 points against Malaysia and Indonesia, the new point is that the Indonesian Football Federation has just decided to appoint Korean coach Shin Tae-Yong as the captain of the national team. With a comfortable mentality because there is no goal, Indonesia can completely cause difficulties for the Vietnamese team.

Defend the throne

With the North Korean women's team withdrawing from the tournament, the Vietnamese team had great hope of entering the play-off round and competing for one of the two tickets to the Olympic finals. Photo: VFF

The notable event at the end of the year of the Rat is that Mr. Park and his team will defend their championship title at the AFF Cup 2020, taking place from November 23 to December 31. Thai football will continue to be the biggest rival of Mr. Park Hang-seo and his team, while his colleague Shin Tae-Yong shows that Indonesia will play the role of an obstacle.

Certainly, the task of defending the championship title of Mr. Park and his team is not easy when the tactics used by the Vietnamese team for the past 2 years have been studied and solved by regional teams. The players who have caused great changes such as Van Duc, Xuan Manh, Hoang Duc, Duc Chien will be renewed by the Korean coach in the near future.

It is expected that with the large investment of many teams, this year's V.League season will see the appearance of several new faces for the national team. In addition to the 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 formations, Mr. Park will innovate a new style of play for the Vietnamese national team.

Great opportunity

Meanwhile, women's football also has a rather important goal. As the top team in Southeast Asia, coach Mai Duc Chung and his team will participate in the third qualifying round of the Tokyo Olympics in Asia in Korea from February 3-9. With North Korea's women's team withdrawing from the tournament, the Vietnamese team has great hope of entering the play-off round and competing for 1 of 2 tickets to the Olympic finals.

What happened at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship shows that the road to the Olympic Finals for men's football is much more difficult than for women's football. With large sponsorship packages from generous sponsors, the women's team is facing a great opportunity to upgrade its level.

Vietnamese football is gaining momentum after two consecutive years of success. The recent defeat in Thailand is an opportunity for us to look back at ourselves and adjust our immediate strategy. I wish us all the best in achieving all three major goals in the Year of the Rat.