What do we see after the successful cycle of Vietnamese football?

The new cycle with French coach Philippe Troussier starts from 2023 with higher goals, higher ambitions based on the solid foundation left by previous successes and new opportunities appearing when the World Cup is played with 48 teams.

With that starting point, Vietnamese football was put on a "launch pad" with a coach who had brought many teams to the World Cup, who had spent time working in Vietnamese youth football, who had concrete experience and had ambitions for the future to start a new cycle, a new vision. No one hid their goals, ambitions, and aspirations to reach the World Cup, including the new coach, including the U20 generation who had just played quite well in the continental tournament. A "model" of the Vietnamese team heading towards the World Cup was formed, including 60% of the excellent players of the previous "successful cycle" retained as the core, 20% of the current excellent U23 and U20 generation and 20% selected from the V-League and the First Division. The playing style will also be reshaped compared to tradition.

U23 Vietnam disappointed in the first tournament under coach Troussier. Photo: VFF

What Mr. Park Hang-seo previously "reached" such as the huge gap with the continent's top teams after the 3rd qualifying round of the World Cup, such as not being able to overcome Thailand in the region... will be focused on solving, starting with the U23 team at the upcoming SEA Games, then continuing with the campaigns of the Vietnam National Team.

But it seems that right from the first steps in the "new cycle of success" with the new coach, Vietnamese football immediately encountered high mountains that were not easy to overcome. The fact that people re-applied the model of a coach "holding" both the U23 and the national team, which was successful with Mr. Park Hang-seo in Vietnam (but not successful with Mr. Polking in Thailand, Mr. Shin Tae-yong in Indonesia) led to an unprecedented situation that on this FIFA Day, the Vietnamese team did not gather, play friendly or official matches, because the coach was busy leading the U23 in a friendly match at the Doha Cup?

It cannot be said that we need to take care of U23 closer to the competition day at SEA Games, butVietnam teamThe first qualifying round of the World Cup will not start until the end of this year, so not gathering (but taking a break because the V-League is also on hiatus) is not a problem? So, all the teams in the world just gathered to play friendly matches, including regional teams, EURO qualifying matches... is a waste, is it unnecessary?

What is worth mentioning, sadly, is that while the "dream" of the World Cup is burning, Vietnamese football has not yet taken shape, or in other words, it is still struggling to find a playing style, a philosophy depending on foreign coaches. That is why the teams often gather for a long time, each time they gather they have to learn from the beginning, do it all over again for each player. The funny thing is that the captain of the Vietnamese team, Hung Dung, recently admitted that "the seniors do not have the advantage of the juniors, when they were still a blank sheet of paper when they joined the team under Mr. Troussier"? The story is also told over and over again without getting bored that the U23 team recently lost miserably at the Doha Cup because they were new to the coach, had not yet adapted to him, so they played awkwardly, afraid of making mistakes, afraid of being eliminated. The coach, even though he lost, was still determined to set his own direction, the players were sad when they lost, but playing according to their strengths and habits was impossible, was it... suicide?

Coach Troussier will have a lot of work to do with U23 Vietnam if they want to achieve the goal of reaching the final of SEA Games 32. Photo: VFF

Of course, no coach will repeat another person, a copy of another person, but the team cannot be a copy, a mechanical application of another person, a different success? It is necessary to have a "pillar", a separate system for each team formed on the basis of individual talent, the collective strength of the whole team. Praising the new coach for being specific and meticulous is one thing. But the fact that he dismantles and rebuilds a team, starting from scratch, actually only brings more worries and sadness. The successful lessons from the way of doing things of Mr. Calistore, Mr. Park Hang-seo... clearly still have reference value now and in the future when they know how to defeat and overcome the powerful Thai people?

In recent days, sports fans have been very happy because sports such as volleyball, badminton, futsal, basketball... are making progress in professionalism, quality, attracting a large audience from near and far. But besides that, there have been regrettable steps back in not applying technology in the Ciputra Hanoi badminton tournament, Hung Vuong Volleyball Cup, leading to amateur referees' actions, causing public opinion to be extremely regrettable and sad. The king sport - football is also making enthusiastic steps, but the disappointing results of U23 at Doha Cup and the lack of concentration of the Vietnam National Team are making things more worrying than ever?

Failure is failure, if you fail, get up and start again, don't blame or flatter any objective or subjective reasons. There is no opponent standing still or going backwards for us to overcome easily. Is it not by chance that the worries from Thailand, even from Cambodia are increasing day by day with Vietnamese football?

To see after the resounding and unbeatable “cycle of success” of the Park Hang-seo era, a new “cycle” of success or failure is something that cannot be predicted or discussed in advance. The strong test doses from the Doha Cup are immediately proving that?