Coach Park Hang-seo and the 'flexible' list of players selected for the national team.

For the Vietnam U23 team, this roster basically meets expectations because it brings together talented players who participated in the qualifying campaign, secured a place in the U23 Asian Championship finals, and includes some outstanding players who just won the 2022 U23 Southeast Asian Championship. Although he will not directly lead the team in the important friendly tournament in Dubai, this is the team that Park Hang-seo will take over afterward to serve the campaign to defend the SEA Games gold medal, after he and his players have finished their campaign.Vietnam National Teamto lose the AFF Cup 2021 championship.

For the Vietnamese national team, the remaining two matches against Oman and Japan don't set any ambitious goals, other than continuing to refresh and strengthen the squad, avoiding being outmaneuvered by opponents, and aiming to reclaim the AFF Cup 2022 title from rival Thailand. In this training camp list, Coach Park included completely new players such as Tuyen Quang, Van Vi, and Adriano Schmidt, while recalling Hai Huy, Tuan Manh, and Tuan Anh. What concerns and worries the public is that Coach Park continues to overlook Huu Tuan and Xuan Manh but continues to call up familiar players from HAGL such as Van Toan, Xuan Truong, Hong Duy, Van Thanh, and Cong Phuong…

List of U23 national team players. Photo: Internet

Clearly, with the Vietnamese national team's spectacular performance against China on the first day of the Lunar New Year (February 1st), and with only Hong Duy starting in Coach Park Hang-seo's revamped lineup, and Cong Phuong coming on when the game was already 3-0, everyone knows what the truly new and high-quality lineup will be. Furthermore, the fact that these veteran national team players failed to score a single goal in the first three matches of the 2022 V. League season, continuing their streak of "lack of motivation and disillusionment with football," yet Coach Park still trusts and calls them up, is causing many people concern and worry.

Meanwhile, players who consistently maintain their form, fighting spirit, and performance, like Xuan Manh for example, are either overlooked or called up late? In the last three matches, Xuan Manh was deployed out of position on the left wing but successively "neutralized" opposing national team players such as Van Vu, Tan Tai, and Van Thanh, even scoring a goal while outmaneuvering South Korean defender Kim Dong Su of HAGL. Or the goalkeeper from Tuyen Quang, who conceded a free-kick goal to Ngoc Hai in the SLNA-T.BD match in Vinh, will also raise questions about the professional competence of this 27-year-old player who is being called up for the first time?

Of course, Park Hang-seo always has his own reasons, and that's something we have to accept in reality. The fact that outstanding Vietnamese football players like Van Quyet, Huu Tuan, Cao Van Trien, Khac Ngoc, Xuan Manh, etc., haven't been called up or trusted for a long time is more regrettable than blameworthy. This is nothing new in football. It's not uncommon for players who perform very well at their clubs to never be called up to the national team under one coach, but then get called up and perform well under another coach. We're not discussing the Vietnamese national team under Park Hang-seo or any new coach, but anything can happen over time, and the main thing to remember is that every talented player has a chance to contribute if they work hard and never give up.

Pham Xuan Manh's name is not on the list. (Photo: Archival image)

For various reasons, the list of players called up to the national teams is always "open," meaning there will be continuous additions and removals until the registration period before each tournament. In the current pandemic situation, there have even been instances of players being added after the tournament has started, as in the recent 2022 U23 Southeast Asian Championship, so things cannot be finalized at this time. Everyone understands that both the U23 Vietnam team and the senior Vietnam national team always have a "hard list" set by coach Park Hang-seo, meaning even injured players are called up for treatment and return to the field as soon as they recover, as was the case with Trong Hoang or Dinh Trong previously. In addition, there is a "soft" list that is always monitored regularly to add players when needed. This means that no one is completely out of luck or that the door to the national team is closed, as long as they maintain determination and turn their efforts into results on the field.

This also serves to affirm that young SLNA players like Van Viet, Sy Hoang, Manh Quynh, Van Bach, Van Cuong… and senior players like Xuan Manh and Van Hoang are always on the "soft list" of the national teams. Let's learn from the examples of those who are regularly selected, such as Ngoc Hai and Van Duc, and how Van Duc and Xuan Manh were called up as last-minute additions to the starting lineup in Changzhou in 2018, or the talent of Xuan Tien, who showed no signs of aging, to motivate ourselves to strive and grow, starting with every training session and every match of SLNA today and tomorrow...

Phu Chau