Realizing the "Golden dream" of Sea Games

(Baonghean) - The VFF leadership and fans are hoping that the U23 Vietnam team will win the gold medal in men's football at the Sea Games in 2017 when the talented players of HAGL reach their peak. However, many factors show that the U23 Vietnam team does not need to wait another 2 years but will be able to realize the "Golden dream" right at the 28th Sea Games this year...

The U23 Asian qualifiers have just ended. Coach Miura and his team have not only successfully achieved their goal of winning tickets to Qatar to attend the final round taking place early next year, but it was also a very useful "test of fire" for the Vietnam U23 team for the upcoming Sea Games "gold hunt" campaign.

Coach Miura is expected to help U23 Vietnam quench its "thirst" for SEA Games gold medals.

Through what the U23 teams of Southeast Asian countries have shown, it shows that except for Thailand, who has still proven their strength, the remaining opponents that U23 Vietnam will likely have to face at the 28th Sea Games such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar,... have not left much of a significant impression. This is quite clear when the host team of the 28th Sea Games, Singapore, played very poorly, only winning 2 points after 3 matches and had to finish behind U23 Laos in Group J. The U23 Indonesia team also showed weakness, although playing at home and being in an extremely favorable group with opponents East Timor, Brunei and South Korea, U23 Indonesia still could not win the excellent second place to win a ticket to the final round due to a heavy 0-4 loss to the team from the land of Kim Chi and only a modest win against the two remaining underdogs. Similarly, U23 Myanmar was also in a favorable group, but only won lightly against Taiwan and Hong Kong, while losing heavily to U23 Australia 1-5 and was eliminated. Meanwhile, U23 Malaysia played at home but lost 1-2 to U23 Vietnam in a "convincing" way.

Many people believe that in the upcoming Sea Games, the above opponents will present a different face after adding new elements. In addition, the U23 Malaysia team participating in the 28th Sea Games is a completely different team, not the team that lost to U23 Vietnam recently. However, many sources of information show that even the U23 Malaysia team preparing for the Sea Games does not have many excellent players, this team lost 0-3 to U20 Myanmar in a friendly match and only drew 1-1 with U23 Myanmar. Moreover, establishing two U23 teams at the same time to serve two different purposes like Malaysia's way of doing is not necessarily good, because it will both disperse the force and lose the opportunity to compete for the key team.

In particular, in the registration list for the upcoming 28th Sea Games, the U23 Vietnam team will be supplemented with excellent faces born in 1992 who shone in the national team's jersey at the AFF Suzuki Cup 2014 and previous youth football tournaments such as: Hoang Thinh, Mac Hong Quan, Huy Hung, Quach Tan, Minh Tung, Phi Son, Khac Ngoc, ... along with some injured players from the previous period: Ho Tuan Tai, Luong Xuan Truong, Hong Duy, Van Tien, ... will return to help coach Miura have more choices, at that time the strength of U23 Vietnam will certainly increase many times.

Because the host country Singapore decided to hold the 28th Sea Games in June instead of December as before, the preparation time for U23 Vietnam is not much left. Immediately after returning from Malaysia, VFF and Coach Miura immediately started to build a plan to prepare for the Sea Games. Accordingly, our Olympic team will gather from May 5 to 25 in Hanoi. During the training period, the team will play 2 international friendly matches, 1 match with the U23 Korean team on May 9, the second friendly match will take place on May 14 with a team from East Asia or Europe. After that, Coach Miura and his team will go to Singapore and start the campaign to conquer the Sea Games gold medal with the first match on May 29.

Although most of the U23 Vietnam players have tried their best and completed their tasks well in the recent U23 Asian qualifiers, the weaknesses of many young players have also been clearly revealed and it is very likely that Coach Miura will have to eliminate nearly half of the team to make room for players born in 1992. The names that can be eliminated from the list of players participating in the Sea Games due to many limitations are: Hoai Anh, Duc Huy, Van Thanh, Van Long, Hoai An, Hung Dung, Van Toan, Thanh Binh, Duy Manh, Van Thanh...

Certainly, in addition to the squad of players who have proven their abilities such as: Que Ngoc Hai, Cong Phuong, Manh Hung, Huy Toan, Tien Dung, Duc Luong, Ngoc Thang, Tan Tai, Minh Long, Tuan Anh, Huu Dung,... the necessary addition of experienced players such as: Hoang Thinh, Mac Hong Quan, Huy Hung, Quach Tan, Luong Xuan Truong,... will help the pieces of U23 Vietnam become more perfect and Coach Miura's team is completely strong enough to compete for the gold medal with the U23 Thailand team at the 28th Sea Games.

Hoang Hao