Friendly match under coach Philippe Troussier

National teams or clubs, professional or semi-professional, and grassroots, always have this "rehearsal" as a "default" to make choices and decisions, serving long-term tasks.

On the upcoming FIFA Day, the Indonesian team spared no expense in organizing a friendly match with the reigning world champions, Messi's team, Argentina. This outstanding promotion by the football people of the archipelago country aims to encourage a developing football industry, creating opportunities for national players to compete with the world's top teams and famous players from all over the world. This will increase the players' confidence and dedication, creating conditions for a large number of fans to witness with their own eyes - stars that they would hardly meet even in their dreams, creating a boost for Indonesia to compete fairly with regional and continental opponents!

Coach Philippe Troussier asked his players to have maximum concentration and quickly forget about V-League because SEA Games is the important tournament ahead. Photo courtesy of Hai Hoang

Vietnamese football is also in the process of rising, setting very high ambitions, but this time it started from a rather normal starting point, which is only choosing average teams of the continent to play friendly matches, namely the Hong Kong - China team and the Syrian team, going from easy to difficult without choosing any "higher level" competition. The way of doing it is also completely different from before as we have witnessed and recorded.

That was almost from the time of Mr. Park Hang-seo before, every time the team gathered to play a friendly match, it was not difficult for experts and insiders to guess which faces were called up, who would be the main players, the reserve players, the margin of error was not much. The choice of opponents was also moderate, not too difficult, affecting the spirit of the battle afterwards. For example, to participate in an upcoming tournament, after the draw to divide the group, we will know who the opponents are, what their playing style is like, people will choose to play friendly matches with similar opponents, with similar playing styles to get acquainted, to find ways to overcome the opponents, to avoid being surprised when entering the official match.

Therefore, no matter how "magical" or "magical" we are, it is not difficult for our opponents to identify our strength, playing style, and tactics. The Thai people used to really like to confront Vietnamese teams, simply because they understand us, know who is strong, who is weak, who is new, who is old. Nguyen Hong Son at The Cong was good for a while, but he could not help the Vietnamese team surpass the Thais, simply because they knew how to predict Hong Son and his teammates, causing all connections and communications to be broken, the whole system to collapse and lead to failure. Even when Mr. Park Hang-seo won the AFF Cup 2018, reached the third qualifying round of the 2023 World Cup with talented Quang Hai or Hoang Duc, they still had to lose to the Thais, because right from the friendly match, they knew what their opponents had, what they did not have, how to block and disrupt their playing style to achieve the ultimate goal.

Coach Philippe Troussier wants his players to get used to his tactical ideas. Photo courtesy of Hai Hoang

Among many reasons, after the peak period of Vietnamese football under Park Hang-seo, the seemingly forever strong relationship with the Korean coach also had to come to an end. Everyone understands that Vietnamese football has "hit its ceiling" and if it does not change, does not remake, does not renew, the risk of falling behind, being surpassed by opponents is extremely real and present. The person entrusted with the task is the French coach Philippe Troussier as we know. We have also witnessedU22 VietnamThe defeat at SEA Games 32 against Indonesia, not Thailand, shows that if delayed, things will be more difficult to resolve, more awkward than ever. And despite the temporary defeat from the beginning, don't think that Mr. Troussier is...losing his way?

The way Mr. Troussier got involved, first of all, is the perspective, the way of doing things from friendly football, that is, from the preparation work. Mr. Troussier did not do as his predecessors, but put 3 teams together, trained, found suitable factors to compete, to choose the long term with a strong rejuvenation perspective, only keeping a few famous stars, familiar to us as well as... opponents. It is not possible to say whether this way of doing things is the best, optimal or not, but certainly no one is automatically sure of a place to neglect training, lose form or any other unprofessional manifestations. In particular, never before have opportunities for young factors, especially the U23 generation, been opened up as widely as now? The resource of overseas Vietnamese players is also being used, tested...

It is just a friendly match but Mr. Troussier chooses step by step, the next step is the result of the previous step and is the basis for the next call-up, the use, meaning that 2 different friendly matches are in a general whole, not separate from each other. Not wasting talent but also not allowing anyone to "beg for the past", all are tested, evaluated specifically, by friendly matches, by training according to new and advanced training programs... as he is doing with more than 50 players recently called.

Hopefully, Mr. Troussier is igniting a fire of dedication in each Vietnamese player, motivating each person to maximize their potential, their unexplored abilities, creating a new look, a new way of doing things and the necessary effectiveness for Vietnamese football. Starting from seemingly useless, formal friendly matches, and routine gatherings, everything is now gradually revealing itself and becoming clearer under the hands of coach Philippe Troussier./.