Vietnam team and 'test' from Russia and Thailand
After two matches against the Philippines and Iraq, Coach Kim Sang Sik will have the opportunity to reunite with his players in the friendly matches scheduled against Russia and Thailand at the FIFA Days in September at My Dinh Stadium. This is an ideal condition for the Korean coach to realize many goals that he has planned since leading the team.
Since June 12, when the Vietnamese team lost to Iraq in the final match of the 2026 World Cup qualifying round, coach Kim Sang Sik has only been able to meet his players in V-League matches. The Korean coach has been visiting the stadiums to monitor the players' performance and to assess the situation in preparation for the team's upcoming plans.
At this time, Vietnamese fans are probably eagerly waiting for the return of coach Kim Sang Sik and his team. The lack of any training sessions in the past 2 months can also be considered a loss for the Korean coach himself. The Vietnamese team has lost many things after the failed journey under coach Troussier and missing out on FIFA Days is also a regret for football lovers in the country.
The match against Thailand and especially against Russia in September will therefore solve many things for coach Kim Sang Sik and Vietnamese fans. The 1976-born coach will take advantage of this time to evaluate the performance of his players. Most clubs are currently training very hard to prepare their players' physical strength for the 2024/25 season.
For his part, Coach Kim Sang Sik will make the most of this time to test new ideas. After what was considered a "honeymoon" period with 2 matches against the Philippines and Iraq in June this year, Coach Kim Sang Sik can now make drastic changes.
In June, Coach Kim Sang Sik started his reign in a very safe way. The players called up were mostly seasoned veterans. At that time, Coach Kim Sang Sik also comfortably accepted the job because the Vietnam National Team had not been successful under Coach Troussier.
However, there are also opinions that Coach Kim Sang Sik almost "copy-pasted" the ideas of Coach Park Hang-seo in his first time leading the Vietnam team. This is also because Coach Kim Sang Sik sought advice from Coach Park Hang-seo when Mr. Park was very successful with the Vietnam team. And Coach Park Hang-seo understands his old team better than anyone else.
The match with the Russian team scheduled to take place on September 5 can be considered the start of the journey to conquer the AFF Cup 2024. The "Russian Bears" are not an easy opponent to accept a friendly match with the Vietnamese team. At a much higher level, the away team will motivate Coach Kim Sang Sik's students to strive to conquer themselves. It has been a long time since Vietnamese football has had a friendly match that is considered to be of quality on FIFA Days.
Vietnamese fans are also looking forward to the two friendly matches at My Dinh next month to see the face of the Vietnamese team under coach Kim Sang Sik. After a long time of only working on papers and ideas, Mr. Kim Sang Sik can now force his students to change according to his will. Compared to his predecessors Park Hang-seo and Philippe Troussier, coach Kim Sang Sik also wants to show himself through a Vietnamese team with many ideas and a cohesive style of play.
Coach Kim Sang Sik may dare to take risks to experiment with the lineup in September. Because even though the opponent is strong, the Vietnamese team does not have much time to refresh with the Korean coach. The Vietnamese team in recent years has almost formed with the 3-4-3 framework, and that is not the preferred formation of Coach Kim Sang Sik.
The 48-year-old coach was successful at Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors with a more modern, more offensive 4-2-3-1 formation. And Vietnamese fans also expect Mr. Kim Sang Sik to bring that new breeze to the Vietnam team.
In addition, Coach Kim Sang Sik may have to boldly try to add more young players to the team in the coming time. Coach Kim Sang Sik must renew his team when many veterans have lost their form or need a competitive motivation to rise up.
The two matches against Russia and Thailand will be a warm-up for the AFF Cup 2024. Although they may be just friendly matches, they will affect the team's ranking because these two matches are part of "FIFA Days". In addition, if there are positive results, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team will be in high spirits to conquer the AFF Cup 2024.
After suffering a lot in the past, the Vietnamese team expects a lot from coach Kim Sang Sik to create a new momentum for football. And the matches against opponents ranked higher than them in the FIFA rankings such as Russia and Thailand will be the inspiration for coach Kim Sang Sik and his team to look optimistically towards the future.
In a year where Vietnamese youth football has been disappointing with many failures in regional tournaments, this task for coach Kim Sang Sik is not easy. That may also be the reason why the Korean coach will gather the Vietnam U23 team in the coming days to review the performance of the young players./.
