Coach Cristiano Roland wants U16 Vietnam to play football like Portugal
Coach Cristiano Roland expressed his view that he will build the playing style of the Vietnam U16 team based on the technical advantages of his players, while focusing on solidity in defense like Portuguese football.
Coach Cristiano Roland has divided the Vietnam U16 team into internal competitions to observe and evaluate the players' ability to absorb the training method he is applying.
"Although it is only the first days of work, the coaching staff is trying to help the players absorb the appropriate playing methods and philosophies. Regarding the quality of the players, I see that they have a very good foundation of individual technique. Therefore, we orient the players to try to play in a proactive style in controlling the ball, but must rely on the solidity of the defense. To do this, in addition to the desire to play football, the players must also always maintain a confident mentality in training and competition," said coach Cristiano Roland.
Born in Brazil and moved to Portugal to play at the age of 21, it is understandable that coach Cristiano Roland is deeply influenced by the philosophy of Portuguese football. He also admitted that he applied Portuguese football training methods during his time in charge of Hanoi U17 Club and helped the team win the 2024 National U17 Championship for the first time.
“Everything is completely new at first, from the way of distributing exercises, as well as the arrangement of the amount of exercise, but gradually when the players understand, they will see the necessary benefits. Currently, I also apply that method to the Vietnam U16 team,” coach Cristiano Roland shared.
According to the plan, the Vietnam U16 team will continue to maintain training at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center. On August 14, the team will leave for Shenyang (China) to participate in the international U16 friendly tournament - Peace Cup 2024. This tournament has the participation of Vietnam U16, Japan U16, Uzbekistan U16 and host China U16.
Evaluating the goal of the Vietnam U16 team when participating in the above tournament, coach Cristiano Roland said: “Matches with strong opponents at this time are very necessary for Vietnam U16. Meeting teams at a high level brings pressure, helping them mature a lot. In addition, this is also an opportunity for me to test the connection between the players, to see if they create the solidity as expected by the coaching staff or not.”
After this training session, the Vietnam U16 team will continue to be given the opportunity by the VFF to go to Japan for training in mid-September, to complete the final preparations before competing in the 2025 U17 Asian qualifiers.
In the 2025 AFC U17 Championship qualifiers, U16 Vietnam (then called U17 Vietnam) is the host team of Group I (scheduled to be held at Viet Tri Stadium, Phu Tho), and will welcome U17 Kyrgyzstan (October 23), U17 Myanmar (October 25) and U17 Yemen (October 27).
