Vietnamese football faces difficulties with 'roadblocks'

Vietnamese football is going through that journey and is feeling it more than ever when rivals appear one after another to block the way, slow down, and even be ready to dethrone at any time.

Vietnam National Team

Indeed, when Vietnamese football grew strongly in both the region and the continent, starting from the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, then successively at the 2018 ASIAD, the 2018 AFF Cup, the 2019 SEA Games, the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup for men's football, the 2023 World Cup for women's football and two consecutive 2016 and 2021 World Cups for futsal... as many people have witnessed. But almost immediately, Vietnamese football had to face countless opponents, even in the region when it seemed to have risen to the top, making the protection and preservation of the achievements extremely urgent and unpredictable.

First of all, with the men's football of the Vietnam National Team and Vietnam U23 Team. The time when the Vietnam National Team went to Singapore to participate in the AFF Cup 2021 with the mission of defending the AFF Cup 2018 throne coincided with the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, in which the region had only one representative, the Golden Star Warriors. This shows that the Vietnam National Team has been reaching out, surpassing the region. But strangely, when returning to the familiar playground, that above-the-line, beyond-the-line thing did not actually happen. The Vietnam National Team first met the "roadblock" Indonesia with a 0-0 draw in the group stage (although before that in the 2nd qualifying round we had won 4-0), then lost the top spot in the group to enter the semi-finals and had to face rival Thailand, losing 0-2 after two matches, officially returning the throne to the opponent.

U23 Vietnam.

Before that, we always believed that there was only one real opponent, the Thai team, but when entering the match, everything became more unpredictable with the addition of the Indonesian team. This new but not new opponent, Indonesia, will be named U23 Indonesia, participating in the 31st SEA Games and is now a team in the same group A, competing for first and second place in the group to... avoid Thailand in the semi-finals as before? With remarkable progress in a short time when performing the task in the second round of the World Cup and AFF Cup, U23 Indonesia is considered the number 1 formidable opponent of U23 Vietnam in the process of defending the upcoming SEA Games gold medal, not just U23 Thailand as usual. Obviously, to achieve the goal, U23 Vietnam must first overcome U23 Indonesia, not let the opponent get in the way, so that everything has a chance to go in the right direction and reach a good finish.

With futsal, the situation is also unpredictable, similar to men's football. The Vietnam Futsal Team has just played very well at the 2021 World Cup, but when returning to the 2022 Southeast Asian Futsal Championship, in addition to the big opponent that has not been able to overcome for a long time, Thailand, there is also a not-so-easy opponent, the Myanmar National Team. Right in the group stage, Mr. Pham Minh Giang and his team could not overcome their opponent Myanmar (1-1) and repeated the path of the Vietnam National Team at the 2021 AFF Cup, finishing second in the group, having to meet Thailand and losing (1-3). Obviously, in both the regional tournament and the SEA Games, the Vietnam Futsal Team will have to overcome at least 2-3 big opponents including Myanmar, Indonesia and especially Thailand to have any hope of achieving specific results. That is absolutely not easy, when the opponents are getting bigger and stronger, more numerous, posing more challenges, more ambitions?

For a long time, women's football in the region has only been a competition between two "big sisters", Vietnam and Thailand. The Thai women's team participated in the World Cup twice in 2015 and 2019 and is currently in the play-offs to win a ticket to the 2023 World Cup, and has participated in the Asian Championship 16 times and won the championship in 1983. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese women's team has just won a ticket to the 2023 World Cup for the first time, despite their impressive regional achievements with 3 championships in 2006, 2012 and 2019, and 6 SEA Games gold medals in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2017 and 2019.

However, in the recent region, there has been another formidable women's team, the Philippine National Team, which has just won a ticket to the 2023 World Cup. This is a team with many naturalized foreign players, and may quickly achieve outstanding results compared to other women's teams in the region, but it may also "bloom early, fade quickly" when things suddenly become "fickle", going beyond reach in terms of spirit, attitude, and colors as usual.

One thing is certain, in the upcoming 31st SEA Games, Huynh Nhu and her teammates want to defend the gold medal at home, they will have to try harder, be more determined when there is another real opponent, the Philippine team, not to mention Thailand or Myanmar. Hopefully, the women's team will not repeat the unsatisfactory results of the Vietnam team or the Futsal team when facing regional opponents, seemingly easy but difficult, real challenges in recent times.

Obviously, the journey to reach the top, which has achieved good results in recent years, of Vietnamese football is facing real challenges when facing more and more opponents "blocking the way", disrupting, not to mention the opponent that is not easy to overcome, Thailand, which is coming back stronger. Just a moment of "carelessness" and the Vietnam National Team and the Futsal National Team will fail and the women's team is facing a real challenge even in the familiar and... most low-ranking regional playground of world football?.

Chau Phu