Football inspiration must help make the country better

In our lives, football fans, up to this point, have surely watched with passion many top football matches, from the finals of the World Cup, the European Championship, the C1 Cup or extremely professional tournaments in Italy, England, Spain...

Many boys and girls have been passionately dreaming about football artists with the playing style of geniuses like Pele, Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio... We have woven so many dreams and aspirations thanks to football.

But I am sure that no match has created as many emotions and left such a strong impression as yesterday afternoon's match: The final match of the 2018 AFC U23 Championship between U23 Vietnam and U23 Uzbekistan. Even though the "champions in the hearts of fans" were resilient and defeated until the last minute.

Definitely so because:

For the first time in the history of Vietnamese football, a national team competed in the final at the highest level: Asia.

For the first time, the beloved players played football in the snow, a playing condition they had never been used to and had never experienced. The image of the boys in red shirts like fire dragons stepping on the white snow, fighting from left to right, bravely flying on the field mixed with green grass and white snow, then the beautiful goal like a fantasy... caused intense emotions.

The intense, breathtakingly beautiful football matches that will bring tears to your eyes will surely be the most memorable experience of your life.

The wonderful emotions from yesterday afternoon's match made us scream until our chests burst, explode, sublimate in passion and then regret silently until the end.

What can football, its beauty and charm, its strange ability to inspire, do for the future of this country and this people?

I disagree with many people who think that football should be considered as football, that it is just a sport. No, football is culture, football is history, football is spirit, it is politics, it is the sweltering breath of social moods. This sport has a tremendous power of inspiration!

Football has touched the hearts of shoe shine boys, motorbike taxi drivers, farmers, workers, artists, scientists, businessmen and politicians... There is no need to cite too many examples here. Just witnessing the unconcealed excitement of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President Tran Dai Quang... is more than enough.

Throughout this tournament, the Prime Minister continuously gave timely encouragement to the Vietnam U23 Team.Right before the match, President Tran Dai Quang signed a decision to honor the team and the two best players with first and third class labor medals; Many large enterprises and even ordinary people showed their love for football and gratitude to the team with rewards worth more than several million USD.

In the snowy weather in Changzhou, China, many Vietnamese people brought the warmth of their homeland from thousands of miles away to warm up the match, making the cold as ice and snow melt… What could make so many people go from emotions to such lovely and admirable actions? It could only be football, a beautiful, mature, mature, courageous, talented, intelligent football… that the U23 Vietnam team performed.

This tournament has marked a qualitative maturity of Vietnamese football. From now on, Vietnamese football will aim for higher peaks both regionally and continentally.

This is the result of an open football policy, socialization, attracting the intelligence, financial resources, material resources and enthusiasm of society, especially of businessmen such as Doan Nguyen Duc, Do Quang Hien, Pham Nhat Vuong, Vo Quoc Thang, Nguyen Duc Kien… for football. The Government or state agencies alone certainly cannot create such a result.

We must thank the selfless, professional football activists who have silently contributed over the years, and the coaches like Karl-Heinz Weigang, Alfred Riedl, Henrique Calisto... and especially Park Hang Seo, who have contributed to bringing Vietnamese football to the glory it has today.

We must thank the dedication of many generations of Vietnamese players. From now on, Vietnamese football will certainly receive more attention from society so that it can open a new chapter of progress and development.

What is more important is to spread the positive energy from such beautiful victories into the desire for change in society.

Through inspirational stories from football, each individual will have more determination and aspiration to rise up.

Politicians, businessmen, intellectuals, artists, etc., those with social power, inspired by football, should act creatively, positively, and responsibly in their positions to let good things flourish, making the country truly fly up.

That is what not only football fans but all Vietnamese citizens hope for./.