Coach Park Hang-seo: 'Heroes reveal themselves only in hardship'

First, at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship, Mr. Park failed to select a few new faces for the team. Young players Ha Duc Chinh, Hoang Duc, Tan Tai... were all selected by Mr. Park before leaving for Thailand. The core of the current U23 Vietnam team is the U20 team that participated in the 2017 World Cup, but "panning for gold" is never an easy task.

Ready to accept

Mr. Park had to rebuild the offense and patch up the defense. Photo AT

Mr. Park is now 61 years old and has experienced all the joys, anger, love, and hate of a military career. It is not without reason that he has repeatedly said that he is always ready to accept failure, like what he experienced after the 2002 World Cup right in his own homeland.

“A coach’s success or failure is decided in a 90-minute match. You can achieve success now but you have to be ready for failure to come at any time. One day, the gates of hell will open and you have to accept that sooner or later it will come,” coach Park Hang-seo told the Korean media.

Without Mr. Park confiding, everyone understands that in football, there is no such thing as eternal success or failure. The Korean coach's way of looking at the problem in a realistic way is the class of a professional coach. More than anyone, he understands that the Vietnamese team's preferred 3-4-3 formation has been neutralized by regional opponents.

In a forced situation, the "innovations" to the 3-5-2 formation at the 30th SEA Games of U22 Vietnam were considered successful, but the implementation of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship was not successful. It seemed that in early 2020, Mr. Park would have "wide days and long months" to experiment with a new style of play for the national team, but the Corona virus did not give him that opportunity.

Over the past 2 years, in all U22, U23 and National teams, the defense has been a launching pad for success and he has never had to make major changes except for injuries and penalty cards. Duy Manh's knee ligament injury has prevented Mr. Park from using his favorite trio of central defenders: Duy Manh - Dinh Trong - Ngoc Hai.

While Dinh Trong has not fully recovered from his injury, while Van Lam is sitting on the bench at Muangthong United, in the Netherlands, Van Hau suddenly left the field due to injury. Xuan Manh, an old face of the national team, also recovered from his injury. Whether Van Duc has regained his form or not remains to be seen.

Patch up the defense, renew the offense

Phi Son is very necessary for the team at this time. Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Club

Mr. Park is facing an unprecedented crisis in the defense of the Vietnamese national team. In the context of the midfield line Tuan Anh and Quang Hai also just recovered from injuries, the only good news is that Cong Phuong is in good form. Some faces like Phi Son and Thanh Chung are showing the ability to take on positions if Mr. Park trusts them.

In the past, Mr. Park and his students had "good luck" at the 2019 Asian Cup, King's Cup, 2022 World Cup qualifiers and SEA Games 30. Many times the opponent scored first, but in the end we still got good results, with goals scored in the final minutes of the match.

Mr. Park is facing difficulties. Coach Park Hang-seo himself is also banned from directing 4 friendly matches by AFC. After returning to Vietnam from Korea, Mr. Park is also being quarantined due to the Covid-19 epidemic. Mr. Park will have more time for the first 3 rounds of the V-League to have a clearer view of the players when the tournament officially begins.

"Heroes are revealed in hardship" - let's wait and see how the Korean teacher handles it.