Vietnamese football and the 'raid' to go out to the big sea

From Vietnam Futsal team

For example, recently at the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup, against the world champion Brazilian Futsal team, the Vietnamese Futsal team, participating for the second time, although lost 1-9 in the opening match, from the coach to each player, many fans, even on the FIFA information page still expressed their joy at the fighting spirit of the Vietnamese team - the team that was rated lower, especially the free kick coordination situation, like a lightning-fast, tricky "raid" for Dinh Hung to score a historic goal against the world's top Brazilian team.

Recently, when commenting on the remarkable achievements of Vietnamese sports in recent years, Mr. Nguyen Hong Minh, former Head of the Vietnamese Sports Delegation at the SEA Games, did not forget to mention the fact that when entering the world arena, we carry many hopes, but if we want to have sustainable success, we must be patient and work hard, and cannot forever "take shortcuts and get ahead" like before.

Currently, Olympic sports are still a “threshold” that, for many reasons, Vietnam Sports Administration cannot achieve results overnight, and cannot even maintain the achievements it has achieved. Achieving Olympic standards, being on the competition list and striving to break one’s own record (competing as a guest is another matter)… is already extremely difficult, as the specific achievements of Vietnam Sports Administration at the recent Tokyo 2020 Olympics, for example, prove that statement.

Dinh Hung's goal was the biggest highlight of the Vietnamese futsal team in the match against the Brazilian Futsal team. Photo: Getty Images

Many people have deeply felt and admired the process of "holding a gun to compete" for more than 20 years of Hoang Xuan Vinh to win the Olympic gold and silver medals or the 10 years of training of Hoang Anh Tuan to win the prestigious silver medal in weightlifting. Or Anh Vien's swimming achievements at the SEA Games or ASIAD are one thing, but when "jumping" into the Olympic swimming pool to compete with world-class athletes is a "heaven and earth" story. Similar to the futsal competition of the Vietnamese team against the "big guy" Brazil, which is superior in class, mentioned at the beginning of the article.

But that does not mean being content, accepting everything early and blaming everything on objective factors, on the fact that it is very difficult to overcome or overcome that clearly. Right after the "disastrous 1-9 defeat" against the Brazilian team, Mr. Pham Minh Giang and his team proactively looked at the situation in the best, most correct, and most necessary way possible. That is, there was a time in the past when Vietnamese sports leaders had to spend money to "buy" one or two friendly matches with the Brazilian Futsal and Olympic teams (on their way to the Beijing Olympics) without necessarily reaping any specific results in terms of expertise. But today, the Vietnamese Futsal team "fairly" faced the Brazilian Futsal team in a World Cup, although they lost, but in reality they had the opportunity to rub shoulders, to learn all the necessary skills of a futsal player when reaching out to the world and to draw countless bloody, lifelong experiences, to apply in the competition process afterwards.

For the Vietnam Futsal Team participating in this World Cup, scoring a goal and limiting the number of goals conceded in the match against Brazil is a specific victory, achieving a specific goal. The team's highest goal in this tournament is to concentrate on the match against Panama with the hope of winning 3 points, hoping to repeat the achievement of the first World Cup, which was to enter the second round from the results of 4/6 third-placed teams with the best results in the groups.

To the Vietnam football team at the 2022 World Cup

Similarly, the arduous journey of Coach Park Hang-seo and his team in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Asia this time is a great step forward for Vietnamese football so far. But the lesson of not only not being successful but also the subsequent disastrous failure of the Thai people is still hot and the matterVietnam National Team“know yourself, know your enemy” is now being raised more specifically than ever. It will be a journey of harvesting, testing, and evaluating the ability of the military, the ability of the players against big teams, which battles must be overcome, which battles must be tried… Initially, the opponents that the Vietnamese team had the most calculations for were the Oman and Chinese teams, but in reality it will not be simple and easy.

A fight for the ball between players of the Vietnam and Australia teams. Photo: Hai Hoang

Therefore, the fact that Mr. Pak Hang-seo continuously calls up players with high performance and young talents in this campaign shows that the biggest goal that Vietnamese football must achieve at this time is to defend the AFF Cup 2018 championship and the SEA Games 2019 gold medal. Of course, the Vietnamese team still has to play as well as possible, at least to win 2-3 points in this qualifying campaign. That, after all, winning or losing in specific matches is not the most important thing, when tickets to Qatar are almost "booked" for regular guests such as the Japanese team, the Korean team, the Iranian team, the Australian team or the Saudi Arabia team...

What many people expect from the Vietnam National Team in the upcoming difficult matches is the mindset of someone who is not resigned, never accepting everything that is available, but on the contrary, must have the will to rise, step by step, time by time to accumulate, to enrich, to gradually raise the achievements of sports in general and football in particular on the world map.