Vietnam U20 Team: Happy and worried!

(Baonghean) - Football expert Vu Manh Hai expressed many concerns for the Vietnam U20 team before the tournament taking place at the end of May.

- U20 Vietnam is only one friendly match away from the 2017 U20 World Cup. How do you evaluate our team's current strength?

- This year, the U20 team focuses on a broader area, synthesizing the best of many teams. That is also a good sign for a team. Besides, U20 Vietnam has had good results in the 2016 U19 Asian Cup thanks to promising faces. The list that coach Hoang Anh Tuan has summoned mostly has relatively good "roots", familiar players and the ability to play well together.

Football expert Vu Manh Hai is worried about the Vietnam U20 team. Photo: Internet

However, in my opinion, U20 Vietnam has not yet had the best convergence or to be more precise, not enough people. The players participating in V.League are called up too little. In general, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan does not have the best people he wants. And the best players are not sure to ensure physical strength like Quang Hai or the faces who have fought a lot in V.League.

- The preparation process of coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team as well as the recent training session in Germany brought positive results. So what makes us worried, sir?

- In the recent training session in Germany, U20 Vietnam played friendly matches with U19 and U23 Borussia Mönchengladbach, U23 Schalke 04 and U19 Fortuna Düsseldorf and all achieved quite good results. Almost no Vietnamese team has had good results when training in Europe like U20 Vietnam. This training session was not long enough but it also created trust.

There is a lot of information that U20 Vietnam has good preparation, which is a good sign, but the training in Germany is too short. I am worried that the players do not have enough time to absorb the training plan set by the coaching board. On the other hand, VFF almost does not create conditions for the players to compete, they have few playgrounds to show their talent. That is a worrying thing!

- How do you perceive the role and what coach Hoang Anh Tuan is doing for Vietnamese football in general and U20 Vietnam in particular?

- Everyone knows the ability of coach Hoang Anh Tuan. Everything he is doing is a positive contribution to Vietnamese football, especially at this age. It is a bit regrettable that it seems that the relationship between him and the coaches of the V.League teams is not very good, so when persuading the teams to "release their players", he also encounters many difficulties.

The list of the national team shows the limited coordination between the U20 head coach and the coaches at the club. It also shows the lack of unity and uniformity in the direction of the Vietnam Football Federation. They have not created any conditions for us to consider this a campaign when the World Cup is really a good opportunity. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan should have been supported more to do his job well.

- What do you expect from U20 Vietnam in a big tournament like the World Cup and the ability of coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team?

- The U20 Vietnam team has had favorable conditions since the group draw. The same goes for the match schedule, meeting New Zealand, U20 France and U20 Honduras is very favorable. The important thing is how we perform. The U20 World Cup is a big playground, winning a ticket to participate in this tournament is truly an honor for the U20 Vietnam players.

So I just hope that our team will play well, so that other countries can see that Vietnam is completely worthy of being in the finals. I also don't hope that U20 Vietnam will be first or second in the group, I just hope that the image of Vietnamese football will be recognized appropriately.

Thank you for this conversation!

TK

(Perform)