Vietnam National Team: When youth speaks up and 'famous' names are on the bench

But just one moment of incompetence by veteran goalkeeper Van Lam when he kicked the ball into the middle of the field (instead of going to the sides to ensure safety), the Vietnamese team was counter-attacked on the left wing in the context of Tuan Tai being exhausted before and Van Lam himself not being quick enough to avoid a humiliating loss in the final minute of extra time.

It was a very unfortunate result of the match, but looking back calmly, this was a match with many things worth mentioning, worth remembering, and worth learning urgent lessons. First of all, the French coach's campaign to renew, remake, and rejuvenate the Vietnamese team is really entering a fierce and uncompromising phase. The surprise with the starting lineup against the Philippines continued with the surprise whenVietnam teammet a big opponent, the Iraqi team, when a series of young players were trusted in both tense and nerve-wracking halves. The prediction that Mr. Troussier would "put away" the previous key players to save their strength for the important match, such as Hung Dung, Hoang Duc... was clearly offside. The image of Hoang Duc sitting sadly in the reserve area shows that Vietnamese football is operating on a different principle than before. That is, there is no such thing as "famous" automatically having a starting position, that anyone who is not suitable is definitely sitting out!

A generation of players who once brought Vietnamese football back to the regional football throne and gradually advanced to the continent, is clearly showing signs of slowing down before the resilience of eager youth, of a series of new factors discovered and guided by the French coach. Let's look at Tien Linh, Van Thanh, and even Ngoc Hai and their process of entering the field in the last 2 matches? Tien Linh was trusted but is now just a distant "shadow" in the attack. Van Thanh is more stable but only fulfills the defensive task, and is still very weak in attack. Ngoc Hai played extremely well for about 65 minutes on the field against Iraq but injury and physical strength did not allow this player to play the entire match. Van Toan had luck in the opening match but after that he could not show anything remarkable. Tuan Anh was still good as usual but by the 30th minute of the first half he began to lose track of the opponent's acceleration...

Meanwhile, the most important discovery of the French coach is that midfielder Thai Son has played the full 180 minutes in the last 2 matches and pushed his senior Hung Dung to the bench with no clear date when he will return. Minh Trong was naturally placed in the starting lineup for both matches without a moment's hesitation and do not say that the reason is Van Hau's injury. Let's wait and see if Van Hau can dislodge Minh Trong in this left-back position when he returns? Tuan Tai made many serious mistakes in the match against Iraq but against such a classy opponent, that is inevitable and certainly, no one will replace this position of Viettel defender soon?

Against Iraq, who were superior in physique, physical strength, and international experience, the red-shirted team could not control the ball and the game, but clearly did not get confused or disoriented. The second half was a completely different game when Vietnam dared to move up, coordinate, and attack with style, although they were not strong enough to cause trouble for their opponents. That came from the youth, the courage of the coach, and the will of the students.

But from here, there are also things worth mentioning and necessary lessons to be learned from the coaching bench as well as the players. Was it too early for Mr. Troussier to make a substitution right from the start of the second half, considering that the whole team was gradually losing strength against the opponent? And in just a short period, he changed all 5 positions, which is something that few people dare to do and is unnecessarily risky. The coach is right to trust young players, but all of them entered the match without any experience or treasure, in the end, they did not create any significant breakthroughs? Dinh Bac may have been lucky to score against a weak opponent, but clearly against an opponent like Iraq, everything is extremely difficult and must wait for time for this striker to prove that the coach's view is wise. Thanh Nhan or Thanh Long clearly must continue to be trained, while these things are abundant with Hung Dung or Hoang Duc, but are not exploited and trusted?

A narrow defeat against Iraq is acceptable, though regrettable. The rejuvenation path outlined by Mr. Troussier is proving to be correct, but should it not be too hasty as it is now, but should there be a reasonable roadmap? Now is the time for V.League to return so that young players can be trained in practice and progress as desired. Anyway, the direct opponent of the Vietnam National Team in the competition for the 2nd ticket in Group F of the 2nd World Cup Qualifiers in Asia, the Indonesia National Team, is also struggling and losing its advantage through the 2 opening matches, so everything is quite favorable for Mr. Troussier and his team. That is the basis for the Vietnam National Team to gradually improve all aspects, ready for the upcoming matches from March 2024./.