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 participated for the second time, although they 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 - a 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, Vietnamese athletes cannot achieve results overnight, or even maintain the achievements they have achieved. Achieving Olympic standards, being on the competition list and striving to break their own records (competing as a guest athlete is another matter)… are extremely difficult tasks, as the specific achievements of Vietnamese athletes 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 experienced 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 the swimming achievements of Anh Vien 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 "giant" of superior class Brazil 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 fill in 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 Team and Olympic Team (on their way to the Beijing Olympics) without necessarily reaping any specific results in terms of expertise. Today, the Vietnamese Futsal Team has "openly" faced the Brazilian Futsal Team in a World Cup, although they lost, in reality they have been able to rub shoulders, learn all the necessary skills of a futsal player when reaching out to the world and 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 focus 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 reaching out to the ocean not only failed but also failed miserably afterwards by the Thai people is still hot and theVietnam 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 commander, 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 calculated the most were the Oman team and the Chinese team, but in reality it will not be simple and easy.

A ball fight 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, moment by moment to accumulate, to enrich, to gradually raise the achievements of sports in general and football in particular on the world map.