Coach Park Hang-seo: 'Vietnamese people have never been ready for the World Cup dream'

- After U23 Vietnam made a miracle at the U23 Asian Cup, many people hoped that a new generation of talented players would help the country's football soar. Many people even dreamed of a place in the 2022 World Cup, or at least reaching the final qualifying round of the Asian region like Thailand recently. What do you think about this?

- Since the success in the Chinese tournament, many people have asked me about the possibility of Vietnam winning a ticket to the World Cup in the future. I would like to ask in return whether the Vietnamese people are ready for a team to win a ticket to the biggest tournament on the planet? The answer is not yet.

The football movement in Vietnam has not really developed strongly. In V-League, only Hanoi and HAGL have good youth training, other clubs have not. PVF Center has quality facilities but only trains 180 students. That is too few to choose players. If you want a team to participate in the World Cup, everyone must be in agreement, from the Federation, the teams, the media as well as the fans. Let's start making plans, take steps from now instead of daydreaming.

- The World Cup is a distant dream but the AFF Cup 2018 is just around the corner. What do you think about Vietnam's chances of winning?

- VFF assigned the target of reaching the final, and I personally want that too. But first we have to consider the story in the group stage. Vietnam is in group A, in which Laos and Cambodia are not too difficult. But Myanmar and Malaysia are not easy. I am waiting to see how they play to analyze. Recently, I went to Thailand to watch their friendly match with China.

- In Southeast Asia, Thailand is always a "dirty" opponent of Vietnam. Every time we meet them, our players often get nervous and cannot express themselves. Do you have any solution to this problem?

- According to statistics, when the two teams face each other, Thailand usually wins. This makes Vietnamese players psychologically affected, which is normal. In football, "dirty fear" is not rare. For example, China is very afraid of Korea. Korea is afraid of Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Iraq...

To overcome that fear, we have two ways. First, playing many matches with strong opponents and having good results will reduce fear. I think the achievement of U23 Vietnam in the recent U23 Asian tournament will also help Vietnamese players have a better mentality when facing Thailand. Second, when the team gathers, VFF needs to hire a psychologist to talk to the players. When they have a clear mindset, they will confidently show their abilities on the field. The football level of Vietnam and Thailand is not really that far apart.

During the player training sessions, I conducted a survey and asked each player what Vietnam’s strengths were. They gave four main ones: Unity, Confidence, Intelligence, and Never Giving Up. Later, I found another quality: when I set a goal, they always knew how to meet it no matter how difficult it was. With these five things, Vietnam has nothing to fear from Thailand. We can beat them.

- When it comes to solving players' psychological problems, you are a master. That was proven at the U23 Asian Cup finals. So what is the secret?

- In my coaching philosophy, I do not create an invisible barrier between the coach and the players. On the field I am a coach, but off the field I want to be a father, an older brother passing on experience to the younger players.When I accepted to lead the Vietnamese national teams, my biggest obstacle was the language barrier. I used my sense of humor to solve this problem. That is why many players said I was the funniest coach they had ever met and they considered me as a family member.

In a football team, there are only 11 starting players. But, without 12 substitutes, how can the main squad train well or be used when needed. I always try to make the substitutes understand how important they are. My way of doing things is to treat everyone equally. During training, I set goals, everyone is treated equally, whoever meets the goals gets to play.

- As an assistant to coach Guus Hiddink when Korea won fourth place at the 2002 World Cup, what is the biggest lesson you learned from the Dutch strategist?

- What I learned is that the process is not important, what is important is the result.I remember when Coach Hiddink led South Korea in a friendly match, the team lost 0-5 to France. A few matches later, the result was similar. Things got so bad that the Dutch strategist was nicknamed “Mr. Loser 0-5”. The media and fans created tremendous pressure, demanding Coach Hiddink to resign. However, he still encouraged the players, “Well done. Keep up this spirit for the World Cup”.

Later in the tournament, when the team got good results, everything changed. Coach Hiddink was praised.

During his 24 months leading South Korea, Coach Hiddink had 20 months of pressure and criticism. I was luckier, having success in the first tournament leading the Vietnamese teams. But I understand that the future is full of challenges because the fans’ expectations are getting higher. Therefore, I have put the success with U23 Vietnam behind me and started over.

- Recently, you often go to the stadiums to watch your U23 players compete in the V-League. What do you think about them?

- They performed well. But I am worried when a series of important players such as Quang Hai, Dinh Trong, Van Duc... recently got injured. The weather in Vietnam is harsh, the competition schedule is dense this time, the U23 Vietnam players need to play smarter, read situations more delicately in the ball to avoid injury. We still have ASIAD and AFF Cup ahead.