While HAGL hopes that the players who just won the U21 international tournament will be the core for Vietnam to compete at the 2017 SEA Games, VFF and experts believe that the coach should decide for himself.

At the recently concluded U21 International Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, U21 HAGL made a strong impression. With beautiful attacking play, coach Nguyen Quoc Tuan and his team defeated U21 Vietnam 3-2 after a penalty shootout in the semi-finals and then defeated U19 Korea 2-0 in the final to successfully defend their championship title. Immediately after the tournament, many fans voiced their opinion that VFF should use the generation of Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... as the core to attend the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia.

Here are the views of some stakeholders.

The beautiful playing style of the U21 HAGL player has won over fans. Photo: Duc Dong.

Head of HAGL football team Nguyen Tan Anh: Smartly use U21 HAGL. When I speak up, there will certainly be many people who say that I "sing the child, the mother praises him". I affirm that I am fair, presenting my opinion as a professional, long-term attached to the king sport, wanting the best for Vietnamese football.

In the past, our teams were always defeated by high-class teams from the continent, even though they defended together. However, the generation of Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... is different. They have defeated U19 Australia twice, defeated U19 Arsenal, lost to U19 Japan by a narrow margin, and most recently defeated U19 Korea to win the U21 International Championship. It can be affirmed that this is the best young generation that Vietnamese football has produced.

With what they have shown, the current U21 HAGL team deserves to be used as the core to participate in the 2017 SEA Games. My players have played together for 7-8 years and are very compatible. If we use them as the core, adding excellent players from other teams, we will have a strong team to compete for the gold medal. However, if coach Miura "splits" the U21 HAGL team, they will lose a lot of strength.

Historically, Vietnamese football has built a team with the core of players from The Cong Club or Song Lam Nghe An. In the world, this is also very normal, typically the core of the German team is Bayern players, the core of the Spanish team is Barca and Real... Therefore, if we currently use the U21 HAGL team as the core of the U23 Vietnam team attending the 2017 SEA Games, it is normal.

Mr. Tan Anh believes that Cong Phuong's generation can defeat opponents in the Southeast Asian region.

HAGL does not intend to compete for a place in the national team, we only want the best for Vietnamese football. In the past, there was a period when HAGL had no players selected for the national team or only one place, we did not complain. Even when Mr. Duc spent money to invite Arsenal to come, HAGL only had one member selected for the national team, Van Nhien. When our players are not as good as those from other training centers, we do not object to not being included in the national team. But at this time, HAGL has an excellent generation, they deserve to be used as the core of U23 Vietnam.

Former coach Nguyen Thanh Vinh: Please respect the head coach. When discussing team personnel, I hope everyone will respect the head coach. They are the ones responsible for the team's performance, so they have the right to choose the personnel that best suits their tactics and goals.

After the U21 International tournament, fans saw that HAGL had a very good generation, hoping that they would be the core of the U23 Vietnam team playing in the 2017 SEA Games. That is the fans' right, they are loved, they are expected. But the coach also has the right to evaluate his own expertise. The coach will evaluate whether the generation of Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... is strong enough to compete for medals or not, worthy of being considered the core of the team or not...

In my personal opinion, HAGL has a good generation but not most of their players are worthy of playing for the national team. They really only have 7-8 quality players, the rest are weak. So it would be reasonable for coach Miura to choose HAGL's excellent players, then choose the rest who are good players from other clubs.

Coach Nguyen Thanh Vinh said that there is a big gap in the level of HAGL players.

Fans should be fair to other clubs' players. HAGL U21 won the recent international U21 tournament, but they are not invincible. They beat Korea, but they were U19 players, two years younger. In football, a two-year age gap is a significant gap.

In the semi-finals, U21 HAGL only defeated U21 Vietnam after a penalty shootout, and even before that, they only had to score an equalizer at the end of the match. This is enough to prove that U21 Vietnam also has quality players, not inferior to Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong... who deserve to wear the national team jersey to play in the 2017 SEA Games.

VFF General Secretary Le Hoai Anh: Do the best for Vietnamese football. In the recent meeting of AFF, VFF Vice President Tran Quoc Tuan proposed using U22 to play in the 2017 SEA Games and received a lot of support. However, everything has not been decided yet, we still have to wait for the meeting of the Southeast Asian Sports Federation.

VFF General Secretary Le Hoai Anh.

If everything is approved, many players in the HAGL U21 team that just won the international U21 tournament will be of age to play in the 2017 SEA Games. However, whether this team will be used as a core team or not is still uncertain.

VFF always does what is best for Vietnamese football. The best team will be sent to play in the 2017 SEA Games. However, the team’s personnel is largely decided by the coach. When hiring a coach, we must give them the right to choose players that fit their football philosophy.

According to VNE