Cong Phuong - Coach Park Hang-seo's gamble

In principle, calling Cong Phuong is not unusual - at least this time because time does not allow Coach Park Hang-seo to experiment. He still takes risks with injured players like Trong Hoang or Van Hau, but Cong Phuong's case will be less risky. Even though he does not play regularly, he still has to maintain the training intensity in Belgium. That professional environment will certainly keep him in good condition, especially when training with the desire to compete. The desire to play football is exactly what Coach Park needs in case he puts Cong Phuong on the field in the match against Thailand, once the situation is unfavorable.

This is a match within FIFA Day. According to the regulations, the maximum time a player can train with the national team is only 4 days, including the match day. On FIFA Day, every coach will use the maximum squad from the most recent match, especially if their team played well. The principle of "not changing the winning formula" is immutable for coaches. Since the King's Cup, the Vietnamese team has not had any training session for coach Park Hang-seo to test, so it is understandable that he called up 19 old faces in June.

Take the England team for example, after the success at the 2018 World Cup, in the first match of the UEFA Nations League group stage against Spain, coach Gareth Southgate kept 17 players whose names were on the registration list for the World Cup third-place match against Belgium 3 months earlier. If we consider that as the summer break, keeping the squad is natural, then in the Nations League semi-final against the Netherlands in June, almost a year after the match against Belgium, the England team still had 14 players. The eliminated players were mainly old veterans. The comparison is lame, but the way coach Park Hang-seo builds his current team is almost similar to Southgate's, all based on the foundation of a former U23 team.

Coach Park has only 5 days before finalizing the list to go to Thailand and can only use a maximum of 14 players to compete. Thus, except for the case of forced substitution due to injury, the number of 19 players at the King's Cup is already redundant. HAGL's factors such as Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong or Cong Phuong... can completely be strategic reserves. Because, if Coach Park needs two or more options for a match, he still has to prioritize those who are familiar with those urgent changes.

Previously, Vietnam had a habit of long-term training sessions, at least 2 weeks, calling up more than 30 players to assemble the team. But that method did not lead Vietnamese football anywhere. Former coach Alfred Riedl was the one who most opposed this type of training session because it only made his job unnecessarily complicated. After giving endless suggestions, the Austrian coach almost framed the team, causing many players to be labeled "Riedl's adopted children" because they were automatically called up to the national team regardless of their performance. There were public dissatisfactions from midfielder Vu Minh Hieu and later striker Le Cong Vinh with coach Riedl due to this reason.

But this return of Cong Phuong is really a big gamble for coach Park Hang-seo.. He loves Cong Phuong, that is an indisputable detail. It is also difficult for any coach not to love a player with such determination, positive energy and... obedience. It is not strange for a coach to give one or two players special privileges in professional calculations. Or maybe, Coach Park is trying to correct the mistakes of Mr. Duc when he took Cong Phuong too far. Imagine that Cong Phuong will not be used by Sint-Truiden from now until the end of the year. Only the days in the national team are when he can touch the feeling of playing and make personal progress. It may not be an exaggeration to say that Coach Park is "saving" Cong Phuong's career.

But the 28-minute statistics after the King's Cup are true. So, let's hope that Cong Phuong is in good enough form to come on the field and create something special in the match against Thailand, even if it's only in the last minute to kick the decisive corner like Xuan Truong at the King's Cup. Then Mr. Park will be right. But if Cong Phuong does not come on the field, his presence in the team means taking away someone's chance. Worse, if there is no good result against Thailand, then it will be time to talk about fairness. That should also be the last time Cong Phuong is on the team until he gets a starting spot in Belgium.

The case of Cong Phuong, therefore, is no longer a personal matter but a team matter - especially when Coach Park is facing a match in which he must succeed. The opponent on the other side, Coach Akira Nishino, has almost no advantage at all. Thailand has gathered 33 people, including 10 new players and Mr. Nishino only has a maximum of 5 days to find a way to beat Vietnam and present a new image to the Thai public.

Although the result of this match is not a disaster for the losing team, it will answer a question: Does a classy team need to adapt to the situation or just need stability in familiar players to serve the playing style.