Vietnam Team: The "dragons" are reaching out to the ocean!
(Baonghean.vn) - The level of the national football team is a measure of the level of a football country. And at this time, Vietnamese football seems to have reached the level to reach out to the big sea with a generation of extremely high-quality players.
Vietnamese football has gone through many ups and downs since its integration with regional football. Throughout its history of development, the concept of national football reaching out to the big sea is a very distant thing. That becomes true when our team always has to struggle in tournaments that are considered "village ponds" of the Southeast Asian region.
Although always considered one of the top candidates for the throne in tournaments in the "lowlands" of world football. However, the Vietnam national football team has only brought home 2 AFF Cup championships. Even the dream of touching the gold medal for the first time at a SEA Games of Vietnamese football is still unfinished.
On the continental stage, although the boys in red have sometimes created “earthquakes” when defeating some strong teams in the region. However, those victories were only due to luck and the brilliant moments of stars like Van Quyen, Cong Vinh… Otherwise, we lost with a big score difference against the top teams in the continent. Therefore, the Vietnamese national team is just a “underdog” and nothing more.
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| The Vietnamese team has shown remarkable progress under coach Park Hang-seo. Photo: ST |
Everything changed since Park Hang-seo took over the leadership of the Vietnam national team from Nguyen Huu Thang. During nearly 2 years as captain, Coach Park has taken the country's football fans from one surprise to another.
The start of that series of great achievements was the runner-up position in the U23 Asian Cup held in Changzhou, where all the strong football teams in the region gathered. However, with a scientific, reasonable playing style and a brave fighting spirit, the boys in red shirts successively overcame strong opponents such as U23 Australia, U23 Iraq, and U23 Qatar to be present in the historic final match.
The runner-up position at the AFC U23 Championship was a milestone for Vietnamese football as it awakened the love for the team among many enthusiastic fans. From here, the Vietnamese national team at all levels continued to write a fairy tale when it finished 4th at the Asian Games and ended with a convincing championship at the AFF Cup 2018.
The continued successes in 2018 are an affirmation that the path that Vietnamese football has been building is a step in the right direction. The upper echelons of the country's football have seen that this path of "building football from the foundation" is correct, many bosses are building the foundation in the youth system.
| Reaching the quarterfinals of a continental tournament is no longer strange to Vietnamese football. Photo: Fox Sports |
Coach Park himself has also found a tactical model that suits the personality and character of Vietnamese people, thereby reviving the potential strength of Vietnamese players.
Under the 60-year-old strategist, the red-shirt boys' football thinking has been more clearly demonstrated, the players have learned how to overcome the haunting expectations of the fans. Something that previous generations always hoped for but were disappointed.
Moreover, our team has also overcome the tension when facing strong football teams in the region. If in the past, we only had a few players who dared to face the continent, or were even "overwhelmed" by the Thais, today's generation of players are almost fearless.
Besides having a squad of players considered as the “golden generation” version 2.0 such as Trong Hoang, Ngoc Hai, Quang Hai, Cong Phuong, Van Duc… our players possess qualities, physical strength, and physique superior to their predecessors. If physical strength has always been a weakness of Vietnam in the past, it has now been resolved, as evidenced by the fact that the boys in red shirts are not afraid of continuous matches lasting 120 minutes.
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| Vietnam national football team is honored to be among the 8 strongest teams in the continent. Photo: AFC |
At the beginning of 2019, our team continued to write a great story when defeating Jordan to win the right to play in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup. It is worth mentioning that in that victory, the army of the Korean strategist was not afraid of the opponent, confidently organized the game and outperformed the opponent in all indicators.
If we consider the victories of U23 Vietnam in Changzhou or Asiad as just a phenomenon. Then the victory of Vietnam national football team against Jordan in the round of 16 of Asian Cup 2019 has a different meaning, it is no longer a victory of miracles or phenomena. But it is a victory of reaffirming values, a victory of maturity.
With Coach Park Hang-seo, Vietnamese football is making steady progress to continuously narrow the gap with the most advanced football teams in Asia. This proves that the Vietnamese team is strong enough to reach out to the big sea./.
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