Mr. Park Hang-seo on the journey of 'panning for gold'

There have been opinions that the Korean “wizard” has “run out of magic” after 2 years of working with Vietnamese football. But many people agree with writer Nguyen Quang Thieu: “Coach Park’s magic is to make VFF understand that if there is a correct strategy and truly for the development of Vietnamese football, Vietnamese football will be able to do something.”

The Teacher's Miracle

In fact, Coach Park has made Vietnam never lose to Thailand at any level since he took charge. But for someone to demand that Coach Park perform a miracle and make Vietnam win against Thailand right away is humorous, if not silly.

Mr. Park has blown away the fear of Thai people of Vietnamese players. Photo VF.

Recalling 2 years ago, after the 0-3 defeat to Thailand at the 2017 SEA Games, many people shook their heads in disappointment. As if by chance, when coming to the S-shaped land, Mr. Park breathed new life into the players, so that they were no longer afraid of the Thais before entering the field. He started his coaching journey from zero, the worst was no longer having faith.

He ignited the desire and confidence of the young players Van Hau, Quang Hai, Van Duc. He was willing to put the "darling" of Vietnamese football at that time, Cong Phuong, on the bench, ignoring the best player of V.League 2018, Van Quyet, and encouraged veteran Anh Duc to stay and guide his juniors.

With the team's achievements, including the 2018 AFF Cup gold cup, coach Park has made fans believe that Vietnamese football is not as bad as we think.

The Korean team at the 2002 World Cup, when Park Hang-seo was an assistant to coach Guus Hiddink, favored a physically-rich attacking style. But when working with Vietnamese football, he had to choose a defensive counter-attacking style.

When coming to Vietnam, names like Cong Phuong, Xuan Truong, Van Quyet were the default every time the national team was called up. Mr. Park was the one who discovered and trained Van Duc, Xuan Manh, and he was the one who "renewed" Que Ngoc Hai, Tuan Anh. Looking at Tuan Anh - a "thin" player with a technical style of play, now competing for the ball on par with tall UAE players or Thai players playing in J1-League, we can see Mr. Park's talent.

He personally built the 3-defender formation in the past 2 years, so that in the 2020 World Cup Asian qualifying campaign, the Vietnamese team was among the top 6 defenses in the continent. Mr. Park is not only concerned with building the attack line, in fact, in the past time, Ha Duc Chinh, Viet Phong, Tien Linh are the names that have been tested.

Panning for gold

The Korean coach is still "refreshing" Cong Phuong. Photo VF

Remember that when at SHB.Da Nang, Ha Duc Chinh was not highly appreciated by coach Le Huynh Duc, and Viet Phong was only used to sitting on the bench at Viettel but still had the opportunity to be called up to the national team, which is rare.

In order for Tien Linh to score 2 goals for the national team in the 2020 World Cup qualifiers, coach Park Hang-seo had to protect this striker after his lackluster debut in the first match in Thailand.

Before sending his team to the Philippines for the SEA Games, didn’t Mr. Park Hang-seo call Trong Hung and Hoang Duc to the national team to gradually get used to the team’s training and living environment? More than anyone, he understood that the day Anh Duc would say goodbye to the team was not far away.

Mr. Park's magic is not over yet, just wait!