The word 'patience' for Vietnamese football

(Baonghean) - 25 years have passed since the first official match in 1991, Vietnamese football is still lost in the constant changes of regional and world football. The 2008 AFF Cup championship, the gold medals of women's football, the miracles of the youth teams are not enough to erase the "wounds".

After each failure, the sayings we often hear are that Vietnamese football “builds a house from the roof”, “harvests rice from the sky”… to reflect that youth training has not really received due attention. The recent success of the U16 and U19 teams has proven that youth training plays a very important role in creating a foundation, aiming for sustainable development. But it is important to know that this is the general situation of football in the “lowland” Southeast Asia. When we start to focus on youth training, other countries in the region will do the same before or after not too long.

Some people say that it is because the quality of players from domestic tournaments is not high. However, that reason is not convincing because the poor performance of the England team is not similar to the Premier League, the most attractive and quality league on the planet. Obviously, although the V-League or the First Division is "young", Vietnamese football does not lack talent. Isn't it true that every time we face teams in the region, except for Thailand, we always gain the initiative, dominate the game, and put pressure on the opponent?

What the national team or U23 lacks is the word "patience". Lacking that means lacking courage and alertness, lacking vigilance, impatience leading to gaps in defense and ineffectiveness in attack. As a result, we have to accept bitter defeats because the opponent knows how to be more "patient". The failure of the Vietnam team at the AFF Cup 2016 is the latest clear evidence for that. "Patience" is the way the women's team endured the distance throughout their journey, "patience" is the way the Futsal team overcame doubts, the way the U16 and U19 teams overcame criticism and indifference... And in return, there are explosive victories!

Vietnamese football will suffer a lot more if it does not know how to be patient.

Many people try to blame VFF for choosing the wrong owner of the "hot seat" with a conservative head coach or tactical mistakes... But that is not entirely true. It should be known that, before becoming a legend, former MU coach Alex Ferguson had 4 years without achieving any title and was almost fired. Then, when he retired, people suddenly understood that if the Man Utd leadership at that time was not patient, the "Red Devils" certainly could not have won so many titles. Obviously, to create success, strategists need time to build a foundation for the team in terms of personnel as well as tactics.

Vietnamese football could not have a perfect year when the national team left the AFF Cup 2016 early with tears of regret and pain. In that pain that has not yet subsided, we started to look forward to the dream at the SEA Games in the style of "losing this game, we will set up another game". Even the gold medal in men's football will have the meaning of rescuing the whole football after each time the national team failed at the AFF Cup. But to be successful, the U23 team must solve the problem of "patience".

Be patient with failures and criticism to know how to practice and patiently wait for the right time in each match. That is the inner strength, the self-confidence, the method and strategy for the team to succeed and win. Coach Huu Thang and his team need to be patient to confidently play football like the Thai players are doing, so as not to be hasty, subjective, and make mistakes like in the last AFF Cup.

Even fans need to be “patient”. Instead of repeating the “bad habit” of blaming, pressuring, and even having too high expectations that put pressure on players and coaches, be calm and patient. Because, “small things without patience will ruin big plans”, meaning, for small things, if you are not patient with small things, you will ruin big things. Only by doing so will the dream of gold come true at the upcoming 2017 SEA Games.

Kim Thuy