Vietnam National Team: New and Old Elements

On the afternoon of September 18, the Vietnam National Team practiced for the friendly matches against the Singaporean Team and the Indian Team. Photo: Hai Hoang

Regarding the regular starting players, this training session has "new but old" players such as goalkeeper Van Lam, striker Van Quyet or defender Van Hau. However, Mr. Park Hang-seo does not have the service of the best midfielder at the moment in the V-League, Hoang Duc, due to injury. Similarly, even if he recovers quickly, striker Tien Linh will find it difficult to achieve his inherent form to be ready to start in the next two international friendly matches.

If Van Lam starts in both matches against the Singaporean team and the Indian team, it will not surprise anyone. The two recent matches in the V-League and the National Cup show that at the moment, there is no one better than this veteran goalkeeper, not to mention the intention to thoroughly train an important position that has been on the bench for too long in the J-League 2 is something that any coach must pay attention to. Besides, Van Hau returns to the V-League completely healthy and in his usual form, so starting in his old position, attacking full-back in the National Team is also considered a sure thing.

The problem of the “new but old” Van Quyet will not be as simple and obvious as the two stars mentioned above because Mr. Park has known about this player’s talent for a long time but always feels that he is not suitable for the tactical scheme being deployed. So where will Mr. Park Hang-seo arrange this striker is something that many people are interested in following.

Everything can only go smoothly when Mr. Park allows the team to not play fast, change the state unexpectedly like before and Van Quyet has the opportunity to develop the style of playing slowly, playing annoyingly and making clever passes to his teammates. When the opponent clearly understands the effective defensive-counterattacking style of the Vietnam team, they "counterattack" by playing deep, defending on many levels, making it difficult for Mr. Park Hang-seo and his team. Van Quyet is considered the key to this repeated situation with no way out in the previous matches against the Indonesian team or the Thai team. There are also opinions that Mr. Park Hang-seo does not easily use Van Quyet regularly and Van Quyet himself also expressed that he is "ready to sit on the bench" as long as the Vietnam team plays well and wins the matches. Of course, it is understandable that Van Quyet is called back and forth and the goal of renewing the team with new factors and diverse playing styles like Van Quyet is worth doing and should be done.

With Ngoc Hai and Van Duc called up, leaving Van Hoang, the stars of Song Lam Nghe An on the national team always have a place to perform in every tactic of the Korean coach. Ngoc Hai is still the center of the three-man defense, although the captain's armband has been transferred to Hung Dung. Meanwhile, although Hoang Duc is absent, Van Duc's starting position is 50/50 because coach Park Hang-seo needs Quang Hai to be present and develop his inherent talent while the trip abroad is not favorable, making it difficult to develop in practice. Van Duc can participate in defense, can be the best bridge to change the state after Hoang Duc, can also cut in, move into the middle and score if the opportunity opens up.

The problem is that at present, Van Duc seems to be overloaded because he carries too much burden in his hometown team. But who knows, when he joins the national team, the task of this midfielder will not be as heavy as in Song Lam Nghe An because his teammates will share it and the opponent will also focus more on blocking other attacks, then the opportunity to shine will come to Van Duc. It is very possible that when renewing the team, Mr. Park Hang-seo will have to calculate more to use Van Duc effectively, because this is a player with a high level of variability if he plays in the right position, in the right position...

With friendly matches, everyone knows that winning or losing is not the problem, but the main thing is to test, check the main players, the reserve players and if conditions allow, put young players on the field. Dinh Duy, Manh Dung, Van Khang… have been called up, it is just a pity that Xuan Tien, who just played extremely well in the U19 Southeast Asia qualifiers, has not had the honor of being called up? Surely, in the not too distant future, if Xuan Tien maintains his current progress, that wish will soon come true?