Expectations of the Vietnam Team

First of all, the excitement is evident in the head coach of the Vietnam National Team (VNT), Mr. Park Hang-seo and his Korean assistants because the draw could put the Korean Team in the same group as the Vietnam National Team. At that time, Mr. Park Hang-seo will lead the Vietnamese Team to "fight" with the home team in 2 matches, especially the match in Korea, where he previously served as assistant to the head coach of the Korean Team at the 2002 World Cup, Mr. Guud Hidding, and played very successfully.

Of course, with professionalism "in the blood", before the draw, Mr. Park Hang-seo, despite facing a dire situation "like this body is split in half", frankly answered the press that the Vietnam National Team under his leadership would play the best it could against any opponent, including Korea! In the end, the unwanted thing of Mr. Park and many others did not happen and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief when the Vietnam National Team fell into group B with strong opponents such as Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, China and Oman.

That cleared up the long-standing speculation and expectation of many Vietnamese and Chinese fans that the Vietnamese national team would be in the same group as the Chinese national team! The simple and understandable reason is that although the national teams of the two neighboring countries have not met each other for a long time, recently, U22 Vietnam and U19 Vietnam both won against their opponents, in which U22 Vietnam under the leadership of Mr. Park Hang-seo himself won U22 China led by Guud Hidding right at Wuhan Stadium with a score of 0-2, and then this famous Dutch coach was fired.

Coach Park Hang-seo instructs players before a training session in Hanoi. Photo: Lam Thoa.

Looking a little further, in 2000 in Da Nang, Van Quyen's U16 Vietnam team also defeated U16 China (2-1) at the U16 Asian Cup. And now, although the Chinese team played quite well in the second qualifying round, public opinion in your country still raises many questions about the team's real ability and is very happy that they are also eager and eager for the meeting between the two teams in round 3 like the majority of Vietnamese fans?

However, things will quickly calm down so that the Vietnam team can look back at the results of the second round, especially the 3-2 loss to the UAE. Because in the third round, according to the FIFA Asia rankings on July 1, the opponents of the Vietnam team were all ranked higher: Japan ranked No. 1, Australia No. 4, Saudi Arabia No. 6, China No. 9, Oman No. 11, and Vietnam No. 14. Meanwhile, if based on the UAE team No. 8 that the Vietnam team played so hard, it will be easy to understand the mountain of work waiting for the Vietnam team when they will meet the opponents ranked No. 1, No. 4, No. 6, No. 9, No. 11 respectively. Even the two opponents ranked close to the Vietnam team, China (No. 9) and Oman (No. 11), where many people hope to get points, will still be a tense, unpredictable climb and the favorable part will certainly be very little for the Vietnam team.

The advantage is that if the round is organized in a home-away format, at least the Vietnam team will have a solid foundation from the support of a large number of home fans, familiarity with the field, and training, accommodation, and travel conditions. Furthermore, even if the Vietnam team has the right to hope, the goal cannot be a high ranking in the table, but can be to win against itself, to create results beyond expectations, by calculating each match, focusing on a few key matches to first get 1 point, or even 3 points if playing explosively and with luck.

Final round draw results.

There will be no case of "climbing high, falling hard" but must learn the lesson of history that even the "big guy" of the region, the Thai team, who reached the third round of the Asian World Cup twice in 2002 and 2018, only received merciless beatings from their opponents and then kept falling back. That is a gap that is not easy to overcome and narrow compared to the top opponents in a day or two for both the Vietnamese team and Thailand. And even if there is a debate when taking the historical factor that the Vietnamese team has never won against opponents in Group B with the current Vietnamese team under Mr. Park Hang-seo being a completely different face, or can repeat the "miracle of Changzhou" when this framework is present in the Vietnamese team, it is still impossible not to know the enemy, know yourself and then be hasty, burn the stage and possibly ruin everything.

Therefore, consider this a great victory for the Vietnam National Team as the only representative of the region to enter the third round of the World Cup in Asia; a better opportunity to hone the mettle of Vietnamese players on the way to the "big sea", a real practice session for young players aiming for further goals in the AFF Cup 2024, in the World Cup 2026.

At this time, on the thousand-mile journey of the king sport, the Vietnamese national team in the upcoming round 3 will have times when they know how to win, need to win one or two matches at My Dinh Stadium for example, and times when they know how to lose, but in fact knowing how to lose at this time is reasonable and necessary to be ready to win tomorrow, the day after.

Chau Phu