The shadow of the 'advisor' after the championship of the Southeast Asian U15 Football Tournament

(Baonghean.vn) - After the emotional victory over U15 Thailand in the final match, Coach Vu Hong Viet will be mentioned a lot. However, there are other silent heroes...

Witnessing U15 Vietnam stand firm against the attacks of young Thai players and the way coach Vu Hong Viet's students won the championship, people remembered the rather pragmatic style of U19 Vietnam under coach Hoang Anh Tuan.

Overall, Thai football has been better than Vietnamese football for many years. In terms of youth football, Thai football has a much larger and more systematic development plan than Vietnam. The proof is that they constantly let young players compete with very strong opponents. They have increased world-class coaches to train and coach young talents, and the number of young players playing abroad is also much higher than that of Vietnam.

Thailand (in black) is not an easy opponent for U15 Vietnam. Photo: VFF

At the U19 age group, young Thai talents have started playing in Japan or further afield in Europe. Obviously, in terms of depth, Thai football has made many strides... Thai U15 coach Salvador Valero Garcia himself is also a qualified strategist. However, he has only had less than 4 months to get acquainted with Thai football and Southeast Asian football.

Returning to Vietnamese youth football, the U15, U16 and U19 tournaments have not been of interest to fans until Vietnam won a ticket to the World Cup. In that success, there is a great mark of coach Hoang Anh Tuan. He is currently undertaking a special task at the Vietnam Football Federation.

While the top coaches in Thailand and Vietnam are racing for the FIFA “Pro” Coach certificate organized by the Asian Football Confederation, Mr. Tuan “son” has long obtained this prestigious certificate in 2013. Of course, in terms of qualifications and level, coaches in the region find it difficult to sit “at the same table” with Coach Hoang Anh Tuan. Because this military leader was trained in Europe and attended special classes on topics designated by UEFA...

Before the U23 Asian Qualifiers, everyone was worried and regretful when U22 Vietnam did not have the service of coach Hoang Anh Tuan in the coaching staff. However, his task is no less important than "commander-in-chief" Nguyen Huu Thang. During the time with U15 Vietnam and Technical Director Gurgen Gede participating in the U15 Southeast Asian Football Championship, Mr. Tuan "son" will be responsible for monitoring opponents in the region, then analyzing and reporting to the head coach of the national team as well as the VFF.

Coach Hoang Anh Tuan and Technical Director Gurgen Gede have many special tasks for Vietnamese football. Photo: Internet

And that is not the only task of coach Hoang Anh Tuan and technical director Gurgen Gede during the past time. It can be said that the presence of these two mysterious "advisors" has brought strength to U15 Vietnam at the tournament in Thailand. Not to mention technical director Gurgen Gede, coach Hoang Anh Tuan is no stranger to youth football in the region, especially Thailand. Defeating Australia in the semi-finals is not too surprising, but defeating Thailand in a winning position is indeed problematic.

Against strong opponents, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan's U19 Vietnam played an annoying football. Tight defense, not afraid of collisions and fouls when necessary in the middle of the field. This has been shown by the U15 Vietnam team in the past matches. Watching U15, U19 and U20 Vietnam play, the tactics and ability to execute tactical ideas of the players are extremely good. And one cannot help but be surprised by the physical strength and a highly collective playing style in this tournament.

It seems that Vietnamese youth football is on the right track, from calling up many quality players from different training centers. PVF training center provides 7 players, Viettel, Hanoi and SLNA each contribute 4 faces. To the effort to build a systematic playing style for youth teams based on scientific lesson plans and plans.

Seeing Vietnam U15 win the championship, and before that, successfully entering the quarterfinals of the U19 Asian Cup until the matches at the U20 World Cup, Thai fans have reason to worry. And even though after coach Vu Hong Viet and his team were honored in Thailand, the presence of coach Hoang Anh Tuan was not seen, people still imagined him as a true strategist. He has, is and will contribute more to Vietnamese football./.

Trung Kien