Story of domestic teacher and talented student competing abroad

The latest story that proves this is the process of going to France to play in the second division but extremely struggling of star Quang Hai. It is still early to say whether Quang Hai will fail or succeed, but it seems that after the lifetime experiences of Van Lam, Cong Phuong, Xuan Truong, Van Hau... Vietnamese football has not really had any players capable of playing in advanced football tournaments in the continent or higher. Compared to regional stars like Chanathip of Thailand playing in the J-League or Asnawi of Indonesia playing in the K-League, Vietnamese football stars are still struggling with whether or not to integrate with football backgrounds outside the V-League. And if compared to Japan or Korea, we are still a long way from this extremely important and urgent story.

Quang Hai is having difficulties in Pau FC's shirt. Photo: Bongdaplus.vn

The latest story about the coach is related to the 2022 AFC U20 qualifiers that just took place in Indonesia. There, the two regional rivals, U20 Indonesia with home field advantage, led by coach Shin Tae-yong, who is also the head coach of the national team and U23 Indonesia, faced off against U20 Vietnam led by domestic coach Dinh The Nam. Everyone knows the result. And everyone knows the question that was immediately raised: why wasn't U20 Vietnam led by a foreign coach, when the Vietnam Football Federation has great coaches like Park Hang-seo and Gong Oh-kyun, only to suffer a very unfortunate defeat?

Of course, when competing in a regional or continental competition, no one wants to… lose. If U20 Vietnam loses, they could lose their ticket to the U20 Asia finals, a promising playground, a place that “produces” talented players of Vietnamese football today such as Quang Hai, Hoang Duc… In fact, U20 Vietnam took the lead but still lost in the last 10 minutes of the match for many reasons, the most important of which is that the head coach lacked flexibility, versatility and did not read the game as well as possible.

But here is a long story, accepting temporary defeat to go further, more firmly. It is true that Vietnamese football needs Park Hang-seo, Gong Oh-kun as well as many foreign coaches before to gradually raise the level of the whole football. But more than ever, Vietnamese football needs domestic coaches like Mai Duc Chung - women's football, Pham Minh Giang - futsal, Hoang Anh Tuan, Vu Hong Viet, Dinh The Nam, Dinh Van Dung... - youth football.

They are teachers who have been involved in the movement, with students since childhood, and understand the training process of their students, so they have their own advantages. Moreover, a youth football tournament that focuses on achievements, wins and loses bitterly, and plays with the calculations of adults is not necessarily the right thing to do for any football. The Indonesians have not been able to surpass Vietnam for 5 years, so it is reasonable for them to put all their efforts into a win. As for us, whether we win or lose, we must look far and wide for the whole process of steady development, rely on foreign teachers but also worry about the quality of domestic teachers, not being too dependent and not being too self-reliant in a hopeless way.

U20 Vietnam lost the match against U20 Indonesia. Photo: VFF

And despite losing the decisive match to win the top spot, U20 Vietnam still achieved the expected result to enter the final round of U20 Asia thanks to the second place with the best result. The main thing is that from here, the opportunity for Xuan Tien, Van Khang... will be extremely wide when facing opponents of the same age at the continental level like the current core seniors of the team have had. That is really important not only for the students but also the coaching staff when going through the top matches, gaining many useful lessons in the extremely difficult and attractive coaching career.

To see the process of raising the level of Vietnamese football will not be easy, there is a good job right away but there are also many things that must go through failure to hope for success later. Even stars like Quang Hai, Cong Phuong do not have an easy time playing abroad, other players only have one job, which is to try to play as well as possible in V-League, from there there is hope for something new when the opportunity opens up...