Coach Miura's words about the Vietnam National Team have come true under Coach Park Hang-seo.

In the past, Southeast Asia was known as the backwater of Asian and world football. Football fans around the world only appreciated the football teams of Japan, Korea, Australia or at most Iran. The matches of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia were actually called “village matches”. Vietnamese football even appeared in the sarcastic remarks of coach Jose Mourinho.

“Vietnamese football builds a house from the roof up”, that saying of former national team head coach A. Riedl is no longer an obsession. Never before has Vietnamese football been the top concern of Asian media like now.

Vietnamese football is the top concern of the continental media. Photo: Trung Kien

Everything started with the echo of U20 Vietnam participating in the World Cup, U23 Asian Cup, AFF Cup, Asian Games and most recently the 2019 Asian Cup. It is not just because Coach Park is Korean that dozens of Korean and Japanese reporters were present at a match between Thailand and Vietnam.

Before Coach Park came to Vietnam, exactly 4 years ago, Coach Toshiya Miura also led the Vietnam team to fight in Thailand in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. It was a boring match, with negative defense and the Vietnamese team's deadlock with the intention of winning 1 point. But in the end, we had to play with one less player when Minh Chau received a red card and lost the decisive goal at the end of the match before being "crushed" 3-0 by the opponent right at home at My Dinh Stadium.

After leaving BĐVN, Coach Miura answered the Japanese press. Technically, the Vietnamese players previously had no sense of defense, meaning when they lost the ball, they did not move or fight for it, but left it to the defense. Coach Miura could not improve this and was also less charming than Coach Park.

Before the match started, Coach Park wanted to hold his opponent back. Photo: Trung Kien

Second, if Vietnamese football in particular and Southeast Asia in general want to develop, it needs the guidance of Asian giants. Only then will Asian football have more World Cup spots and be able to compete with European football, which has a long history in world competitions.

On the night of September 5 at Thammasat, Coach Park's Vietnam team also entered the match in a similar way to Thailand 4 years ago. Leading Thailand was a Japanese coach, we - the guests still played defensive counter-attack, conceded the game but did not receive a single card from the players. Meanwhile, Thailand was the one who was impatient to win, played rough, cunning and even frustrated with the plans that the Vietnam team had outlined.

The Thai national team currently has a famous coach, who just participated in the 2018 World Cup, causing the mighty Belgian national team to be in trouble. In terms of fame and background before coming to Southeast Asia, coach Akira Nishino is superior and "brighter" than coach Park Hang-seo.

We also have to admit that the Thai National Championship is much better than the V.League, Thai players playing abroad like Chanathip or Titiphan are also more successful than us. Chanathip is the best player of Sapporo Club, even being in the J.League's best team last year, while Theerathon and Thitiphan are also pillars in Japan.

Coach Park and his assistants asked the players to retreat to defense as the first half was about to end. Photo: Trung Kien

Remember, Thailand seriously set the goal of participating in the World Cup before us, looking at the results of the national team and the regional results, we are still ashamed. But before meeting, Thailand has never been so eager to win against Vietnam. And not only Thailand, many teams in Asia in general and Southeast Asia in particular want to defeat the 2018 AFF Cup champion.

Speaking of the match on the evening of September 5, we had many injuries in the defense such as Dinh Trong, Trong Hoang, Van Hau or Van Duc, the expected faces like Cong Phuong rarely played in Belgium and lost form. Obviously we do not have the strongest and most energetic squad, especially Hanoi FC just went through tense matches at the AFC Cup. As for the Thais, they have all the right conditions.

Yet the Vietnamese team played proactively, fearlessly and still had many opportunities to finish off the opponent. The feeling of anxiety and trembling when the Thai national anthem sounded before the match had completely disappeared. A draw right at Thammasat was clearly a success, in line with the intention of winning 4 points/2 matches instead of 3 points, or even 0.

Two completely different "attitudes" in the match, Coach Park was relaxed while Coach Nishino continuously asked his players to penetrate the left wing, Trong Hoang's wing, but got nothing. Photo: Trung Kien

Coach Park Hang-seo has a reason not to use all his "playbook" in Thailand, because Coach Akira Nishino does not understand each Vietnamese player, and it is also the first time he has met Coach Park in the same situation. There is a bit of regret, but we should be happy because Thailand and Coach Akira are also excited and proud to have drawn with the Vietnam team on their home field. As for the Vietnam team, apart from the miraculous return of Tuan Anh, Coach Akira Nishio has learned almost nothing about Vietnam's attacking style.

In short, a draw in Thailand is a reasonable result, in line with Coach Park's intention, respecting the opponent and also showing that the Vietnamese team has an opponent to compete with and improve together, with more and more foreign players, and the playing style of Japan or Korea appearing in "big battles" like this.

So, when we can't beat Thailand, let's think about a couple of friends who are progressing together. Don't put pressure on the players, and don't blame a few mistakes of the players. Form is a temporary factor, class is a factor that needs to be accumulated. In fact, we are just a little bit better than Thailand, we drew the opening match, but the door in Group G is still very bright./.

Even though they are in a draw, what did coach Park Hang-seo and the head coach of Thailand say?

(Baonghean.vn) – Holding each other to a draw in the first match of the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, head coach Park Hang-seo of the Vietnam national team and coach Akira Nishino were both satisfied with the 1 point they got and highly rated their opponents.