Necessary defeat

(Baonghean) -With impressive performance and passing the U19 Asia qualifiers, the U19 Vietnam players have delighted Vietnamese football fans.

Many people quickly assumed that this generation of U19 players would create a "new page in the history of national football". This belief was further reinforced and multiplied when U19 Vietnam had a match demonstrating their "embroidered and brocade" techniques against U19 AS Roma (Italy) at the International U19 Football Open in Ho Chi Minh City. Our young players confidently held the ball, dribbling skillfully against the dense defense of a team from the country shaped like a boot - a football background famous for its world-class defensive style. In fact, in that match, having to travel a long distance, combined with a defensive counter-attacking style of play, the opposing team completely gave up the midfield for our players to show off their techniques. And finally, the most important thing was the effectiveness of the match - the victory belonged to the opposing team. But with an optimistic mentality, fans and the coaching staff believed that U19 Vietnam had reached international level! From now on, Vietnamese football can hold its head high, when U19 Vietnam dares to play fair and pressure a strong team like U19 AS Roma. If U19 Vietnam loses, it is just bad luck!

U19 Vietnam played poorly and lost heavily to U19 Japan.

And in the second match, against U19 Japan with the expectation of a "dethronement", football fans all over the country were excited, those who had the conditions came to the stadium, those who did not also took the opportunity to arrange their work to watch the live broadcast on TV. But before they could settle down, the Vietnamese football fans were continuously "doused with cold water" by U19 Japan, who scored 3 goals in a row against U19 Vietnam in the first 20 minutes of the match. And so the "torture" lasted for 90 minutes, when U19 Vietnam was listless like a soulless person, while U19 Japan only needed to speed up a little to score another goal. The 7-0 result in favor of the opposing team made everyone wake up and realize that it was impossible to build a team that suddenly had the miracle of growing as strong as Phu Dong from a weak football foundation.

To be fair, U19 Vietnam (the core of which is U19 Hoang Anh Gia Lai-Arsenal training center) is the best product among the existing products of Vietnamese football, because it is invested in a systematic way, has a clear strategy and plan, but only with the love and money of Mr. Duc, and there is no environment for this team to compete. Therefore, U19 Vietnam has only stopped at the level of playing football innocently, abusing techniques but does not have perfect skills and tactics like U19 Japan. Besides, although they are all Asian players, the physical strength and physique of U19 Vietnam are far behind U19 Japan. To be able to "make a difference" in the international arena, the coaching staff of U19 Vietnam still has a lot of work to do.

The heavy defeat against U19 Japan is necessary for us to stop dreaming and know where we stand and adjust to aim for a higher, longer-term goal, which is the U19 Asian final round at the end of 2014.