Coach Philippe Troussier and his journey with the Vietnam team

During the training and friendly matches of the Vietnam National Team, many fans realized the fragility of the defense, the lack of cohesion in the midfield, the lifelessness of the attack and spoke out strongly in protest.

It was thought that after the experiment, a team was carefully selected and screened, gathering the most talented and synchronous strength to compete in official tournaments. But in reality, it turned out to be a team with "favorite students", lacking battle experience, with an unprecedentedly bad defense and an unprecedentedly hopeless attack, and then received quick defeats against regional opponents, specifically Indonesia, in both of the above important tournaments.

The responsible people of the Vietnam Football Federation, after agreeing to terminate the contract with Mr. Troussier, said that this is a good coach but "good does not mean suitable". It is true that this coach has twice led the Japanese and Moroccan national football teams to the World Cup, and has the best "résumé" of all foreign coaches who have led the Vietnam National Team and U23 Vietnam.

But Mr. Troussier also failed more than once in Qatar, Morocco later, in China and now in Vietnam with the typical "pain", the chain of never winning against the Indonesian team, even though he had "taken" stronger teams? Good or not is not an easy thing to discuss, especially looking at the fact that he managed the Vietnamese team or U23 Vietnam for more than a year. Despite having more players, U23 Vietnam still let U23 Indonesia turn the situation around in the semi-finals of SEA Games 32, with 2 throw-ins leading to the opponent's goals.

Next, in the 2nd round of the World Cup Qualifiers, another throw-in by Indonesia led to a goal conceded by the Vietnam team with the most vulnerable defense system in the region at the moment. The three goals conceded in the return match on March 26 was the “last straw” that brought everything to an end for the French coach…

In fact, there are many foreign coaches who have a short "relationship" with Vietnamese football such as Dido, Tavares, Letard, Goetz, Miura, Gong Oh-kyun and most recently Troussier... Besides those who have had success at different levels such as Weigang, Rield, Calistor and especially Park Hang-seo.

Unfortunately, Mr. Troussier came to Vietnam with a glittering resume, with the reality of coaching at PVF, at U19 in the past few years. But clearly, his too big ambition, conservative personality and unique way of doing things made him lose the favor of both players and fans from the beginning. In terms of expertise, he trusted young players too much and that was what "brought him down" when facing life-and-death matches.

He did not trust the old pillars or used them half-heartedly, causing them to lose direction and inspiration to play football. And most importantly, he organized a team without stars, hoping for collective strength, but got the opposite result. In fact, the team disintegrated in spirit, to the point that some people said “it was not a team”…

Then people will have the opportunity, the time to look back and re-evaluate all the things that led to the failure of Vietnamese football under the French coach. "First blame yourself, then blame others", blame others but don't forget that Vietnamese football after the Park Hang-seo era has not had a few "hit the ceiling" stars and no real new stars? Don't forget that the V-League must be of quality, constantly improving, youth training must be fundamental and good players must be able to compete abroad. And the naturalization of overseas Vietnamese players must be quick and of high quality, as Indonesia is doing and doing well. Never think that replacing a new foreign coach will immediately bring Vietnamese football back to its original orbit, but the internal strength of Vietnamese football must truly rise to be the basis for that important and necessary step.