Vietnamese football and the lesson of impatience

The Vietnamese team won the AFF Cup 2018, the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup 2019 and entered the second round of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia. The U23 Vietnam team won the SEA Games 2019 gold medal...

Vietnam national football team and memorable milestone in Changzhou. Photo: Bongda

But after the boundless joy from the white snow of Changzhou, although it happened sporadically,Vietnam National TeamOne by one, key players were absent due to injuries such as Dinh Trong, Van Duc, Duy Manh, Xuan Manh... and then all of these players had to struggle to cope with injuries that lasted until now and still have not healed.

Similarly, after the plateSEA Games gold medal, playing abroad, young star Van Hau got injured and until today, people are talking about the memorable "lesson" about the impatience of the coaching staff, medical experts and the players themselves, causing things to get out of control and sometimes having extremely harmful effects on the players' careers and the teams.

At SLNA, the fact that Van Duc, Xuan Manh and Van Lam suffered long-term injuries one after another, due to the impatience of the coaching staff, the lack of players in the team in difficult matches, and then hastily bringing them back to the field, seems to have little benefit but immeasurable harm. The fact that Van Duc and Xuan Manh played like "possessed" in Thuong Chau and were put on the field as soon as they arrived in Vinh caused unpredictable consequences.

Van Duc suffered a long-term injury and was absent from the Vietnam national team for a long time, and when he returned, even though he tried hard, it was difficult to recognize the figure of the midfielder with many changes on the left wing. Xuan Manh, after his time with SLNA, made great efforts (in the absence of Van Duc), could not avoid injury and now his steady decline is very worrying when he is no longer called up to the national team. Van Lam has been friends with injuries for a long time and lost his place in the national team, which is probably partly due to his haste to enter the field. Of course, SLNA's long-standing shortage of players is a reality that can be somewhat shared.

During the days when the Vietnam national team gathered to prepare for the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, people talked about injuries and impatience, of course all attention was focused on the responsibility of head coach Park Hang-seo. There were many cases where players were injured, which was the reason why the coach did not put their names on the training list, but there were many cases where players would be called up at any cost, regardless of whether the injury was serious or minor, such as Trong Hoang, Van Hau, Tuan Anh... They were just called up to the team, trained according to their own training plan, waited to recover over time and tested before departure, and even did not fully recover like Van Hau recently.

In this story, of course, Mr. Park Hang-seo has his own reasons: he believes in the miraculous recovery of Trong Hoang more than once and he is always right, which is admirable for both teacher and student. But in the case of Tuan Anh and Van Hau, it seems that his rightness does not exceed 50% of the requirement.

Tuan Anh has played and will play very well when everything is fine. But reality has shown that Tuan Anh's "crystal legs" have always caused fear for many people. Although it is very unfortunate for this talented midfielder, it is an obvious truth that in football, in many cases, we have to accept it, even having to leave the ball.

As for Van Hau, if Mr. Park Hang-seo still follows the old trick, insisting on calling him up to the national team when he is injured, has not fully recovered, and is playing in the starting lineup, then who knows what will happen to this young talent?

The lesson of Dinh Trong is still very hot today. It is worth mentioning that a calm and intelligent central defender who played football, but after a long-term injury and hastily entered the field, is now only a "shadow" of himself. Where is the lesson, by whom, what experience needs to be learned, surely not just for one person?

Here, there may be a story of “the end justifies the means”, meaning that the team needs the greatest strength, the sacrifice if any of one person, the team succeeds when the opportunity is once in a lifetime, then generally speaking, it must be accepted. But nothing in life is absolute, perfect, so it can be replaced, supplemented. In football, that is even more evident, the problem is whether the replacement, supplement is “nine out of ten” or not, and if the gap between the official and the reserve is too big, then no goal can be reached.

In short, haste never leads to a positive result for individuals and the collective. Any color medal is precious. To make the front of the medal truly sparkle and have the opportunity to win the next medal is an extremely difficult task, including knowing how to find the best, most interesting, and least harmful way to minimize the roughness of the back of this prestigious medal that many people compete for./.