Will coach Gong Oh-kyun 'overpower' coach Srimaka?

Although the two teams met a few weeks ago in the final of the men's football event of the 31st SEA Games with a narrow 1-0 victory for U23 Vietnam, the match late tonight in the group stage of the U23 Asian Finals will be very different and it will be difficult to determine which team has the advantage when they are so familiar with each other in the region, especially with the recent development of Vietnamese youth football.

Both teamsU23 Vietnamand U23 Thailand both changed Head Coaches after the SEA Games, although Coach Srimaka is actually a new but old person. U23 Vietnam retained 14 players who won the SEA Games Gold Medal and called up 11 more players from the domestic source. Meanwhile, U23 Thailand only retained 10 players who participated in the 31st SEA Games and called up 9 more players who are playing abroad and were very confident when saying that they did not call back any naturalized players, meaning that the stars playing abroad who were called back are all of "Thai origin" and not for any other reason.

U23 Vietnam created consecutive opportunities towards the opponent's goal. To be more precise, in the 19th minute, Tien Linh could have opened the score for the red team. Photo archive

Coach Srimaka is very confident about the long-standing "dominance" of regional football of the Thai people, not forgetting and hoping that those achievements will be repeated in this match, even this tournament, at least in the times he personally led the team to confront and win against U23 Vietnam in the past such as at the 2016 Nations Cup (2-0) or at the 29th SEA Games-2017 (3-0). Of course, this coach did not forget to mention the remarkable progress of U23 Vietnam when just one year later at the 2018 U23 Asian Finals, the team led by Mr. Park Hang-seo defeated the same-age teams in the continent and only lost by a narrow margin in extra time to U23Uzbekistanin the final match full of snow and hardship.

Until the opening day, U23 Thailand is still having difficulty in terms of force when it cannot gather troops for training as easily as U23 Vietnam. But hopefully with the professionalism of the stars playing in Europe or Asia returning, this team will quickly stabilize and compete effectively against familiar opponents in the region such as U23 Vietnam or U23 Malaysia, including U23 Korea when nothing can be said about youth football, and in the opening match it cannot get into "form" immediately against any team.

Meanwhile, U23 Vietnam, although most of the players have played together for many years and are gathered early, will have difficulty with the "new playbook" of the new coach Gong Oh-kyun. It is known that the players who have long been used to operating with the 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 formation will now be forced to enter the match with the 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formation, meaning that switching from a defensive-counterattacking style of play to mainly attacking will be a completely different philosophy, requiring a completely different level of proficiency, flexibility, and speed. Whether U23 Vietnam will quickly achieve results or not is a question that is not easy to answer, especially when "right out of the gate, you will encounter a mountain" like U23 Thailand?

The red stands on a rainy day witnessed an exciting match of U23 Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Referee

In fact, Vietnamese football in general and U23 in particular, after a successful cycle from 2018 until now, are demanding to renew and redo the playing style, in order to maintain and affirm the leading position in the region and gradually reach out to the continent. This is the time to take action, although difficulties and challenges are inevitable. Even Mr. Park Hang-seo, who has just achieved 2 consecutive SEA Games championships with the U23 Vietnam team, when returning to the Vietnam National Team, also tested and searched for a new playing style in the recent friendly match against the Afghanistan National Team (2-0). So U23 Vietnam playing according to a new scheme, a new philosophy is reasonable, going together, progressing together in the continuous "operating system" of Vietnamese football.

When it is difficult for others, it is difficult for us, and when we are in agreement, others will also be in agreement. That is the equality and reasonableness of each team when entering the field. The most important thing is still the performance of each player according to the coaching staff's intention, close to each favorable or unfavorable development on the field. Coach Gong Oh-kyun is not worried at all when someone says that the current U23 Vietnam is not as strong as the senior generation of Quang Hai in Changzhou. On the contrary, this generation has its own strengths and qualities, which are even more worth mentioning?

Someone also said that Mr. Gong Oh-kyun could "overwhelm" Mr. Srimaka to bring victory in his debut match? But then there was also the opinion that, Thai football has always known how to "overwhelm" its opponents. Only when Mr. Park Hang-seo came to Vietnam did the wind really change direction and now Mr. Gong Oh-kyun is continuing to "benefit" from that new wind? It's all just speculation and everyone has their own reasons although in fact the mystery still lies ahead./.

Phu Chau