Opportunity for 2 young SLNA defenders Thanh Lam and Sy Hoang at U22 Vietnam?

Firstly, the fact that SLNA defenders Mai Sy Hoang and Le Thanh Lam were called up by coach Park Hang-seo to join the first round of the Vietnam U22 team to prepare for the 2021 SEA Games is a good sign. Because in the recent U23 Asian and SEA Games 30 campaigns, the Nghe An team did not have any U22 players.

On the contrary, there are certain concerns because Mai Sy Hoang and Le Thanh Lam are still quite unfamiliar to Nghe An football fans. Defender Mai Sy Hoang was born in 1999 in Dien Chau, this player is left-footed and is 1m72 tall. In the left-back position, this height is acceptable.

In fact, the generation of players born in 1999-2000 of SLNA is not really good because the input quality is not high. In the past, Mai Sy Hoang and his teammates often lost in youth tournaments and the most notable achievement was only bronze medals at the national U19 tournament.

Defender Mai Sy Hoang (red shirt) on his first day wearing the U22 Vietnam jersey. Photo: Hai Hoang

As a young U19 player, Mai Sy Hoang was also called up to the Vietnam U19 team by coach Hoang Anh Tuan. However, this is only the first year he was promoted to the SLNA first team to participate in V.League 2020 and has not played a single minute. Obviously, playing experience is something Sy Hoang does not have.

Mai Sy Hoang's strengths are his good basic technical foundation and his ability to join the attack with accurate crosses. This may be the reason why the 1999-born SLNA defender has caught the attention of the coaching staff of the U22 Vietnam team.

One year younger than Sy Hoang, center back Le Thanh Lam was born in 2000 in Thai Hoa town. Le Thanh Lam's first mark at SLNA was winning the national U13 championship in 2013. After that, in youth tournaments, Le Thanh Lam and his teammates did not bring home any more championships.

Center back Van Tuan is 1m81 tall. Photo: NVCC

However, Le Thanh Lam is still a factor that continuously appears in the U21 SLNA shirt. Thanks to that, in 2019, coach Nguyen Duc Thang named Le Thanh Lam in the list of players participating in V.League along with central defender Nguyen Ba Duc. Although it is the second year of playing professionally, Thanh Lam has not yet breathed the atmosphere of V.League.

Thanh Lam’s advantage is his height of 1m81 – an ideal physique for a player playing in the center of defense. Along with that, having nearly 2 years of training with the SLNA first team also brings some accumulation and experience to this 20-year-old player.

This is the first training session in a series of about 5 to 6 short-term training sessions this year of the Vietnam U22 team. The main purpose of these training sessions is to help head coach Park Hang-seo and his colleagues in the coaching staff test and evaluate the players to serve the task of building the force for the Vietnam U22 team towards important tasks in 2021, including the 2022 AFC U23 Qualifiers and the 31st SEA Games.

Center back Le Thanh Lam wears shirt number 4 in the first training session of U22 Vietnam. Photo: Hai Hoang

It should be remembered that the prominent faces in this age group are all participating in the national professional tournaments in 2020, so coach Park Hang-seo has decided to call up players who are considered to have potential but have not had many opportunities to play for clubs. Therefore, the challenges and opportunities for Sy Hoang and Thanh Lam to compete are still many.

The most important thing right now for players like Mai Sy Hoang and Le Thanh Lam is to try to play as much as possible in the V.League or at least in the SLNA U21 jersey at the national U21 tournament scheduled to take place at the end of the year.

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