Assistant Le Huy Khoa and 'reveals' about coach Park Hang-seo

PV:Hello Mr. Le Huy Khoa, before officially becoming the language assistant for coach Park Hang-seo, it seems that you have never done any job related to football. Why did you choose this job?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:Before becoming the linguist for the national team head coach, I did not work directly on football but I love football very much. And especially, I also participated in translating, making many documents, supporting programs and events related to football between Vietnam and Korea. I chose this job because it suits my interests and passion.

PV:On the very first day Coach Park Hang-seo worked in Vietnam, he found himself a language assistant. And you surpassed all the candidates to become the best. At that time, what was your first impression of the Korean strategist?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:The first time I met him was at the Vietnam Football Federation Office. My first impression was that he was a very cheerful man, always smiling. However, he seemed very "fiery" and enthusiastic. In my imagination, Koreans would be very neat, wearing suits, with shiny hair. But when I met Mr. Park, I found him very normal. Overall, he was very rustic and easy to approach.

Assistant Le Huy Khoa is currently the Principal of a Korean language school in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: NVCC

PV:Although Mr. Park Hang-seo is a football coach, surely his working style is something we can all learn from, right? Is that the character of Koreans in general, sir?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:Football is life. Football also reflects the thinking, habits, and behavior of a community or a nation. I think Mr. Park's personality is typical of Korean people. For example, he is quick, prepares everything very carefully and in detail, and works very enthusiastically.

Second, he always emphasized the collective. He always said that our team is one, and whatever we do must be a unified block. Vietnamese football has not changed much, it has only changed in terms of organization and style of play. This is completely different from the past. There is no improvisation or disjointedness.

The third characteristic of Mr. Park, I think he is quite adventurous, bold and daring. There are many matches where we are winning 2-1, he says: "Let's play. Put in more strikers to win 3-1. There is no way to withdraw to maintain the score!". He is always progressive, looking for ways to get better results.

PV:To do this job well, what skills do you think are needed, besides being fluent in Korean?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:I remember the first day at work, I couldn’t understand what Mr. Park said. Because Mr. Park spoke with a local accent and was unclear. Luckily, I also love football and understand football. I could understand Mr. Park’s movements and gestures.

But there were times when I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. That was my difficulty in the early days. Some of the football terms were originally in English. Since I knew English at a conversational level, I didn’t have any difficulty.

As I get deeper into the game, I realize that knowledge of football is very important. Without knowledge of football, even if you have good language, you will not be able to express yourself or the players will not understand, it will be very vague. For example, is the ball moving forward or backward, catching the left foot or catching the right foot? You have to interpret so that the players understand immediately.

Interpreting for the head coach of the Vietnam National Team is a job that requires many skills. Photo: NVCC

I think to do this job you need to have a real love for football, plus you need to be in good health and have perseverance. We know that there are training sessions that last a whole month. The environment is no different from the army. Every day is the same, morning activities, afternoon training, and evening gatherings and meetings are quite a lot. If you don't have the perseverance, it will be very difficult to adapt.

PV:The first time you were an assistant to Coach Park Hang-seo at an official tournament was the AFC U23 Championship. It was truly a beautiful and unforgettable memory for all Vietnamese football fans. What, for you, is the most special memory?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:For me, every match is a memory. Every match has a special meaning. Not only me but also the players. When we went to the AFC U23 Championship on January 1, 2018, almost no one cared. When we took a group photo, there were no reporters, no fans. So we had to take photos of each other. It was a very difficult time.

Assistant Le Huy Khoa at a press conference of coach Park Hang-seo. Photo: Trung Kien

I also love Vietnamese football, but our results at that time were very poor, so I was quite pessimistic. I thought that playing in the group stage with Korea, Australia and Syria would be impossible. We had always lost when playing against them. So, when I thought that after the group stage, we would probably go home, I prepared my luggage. But then we drew with Syria and the same thing happened in the following matches. It was my first time participating in football, I had no experience in preparing luggage like the players, so I had to unpack and repack my luggage 3-4 times.

PV:It seems that Coach Park Hang-seo and his professional assistants have a very special way of selecting personnel for the team and the way of using players. Can you give some typical examples?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:I will take the case of Que Ngoc Hai as an example. One day, assistant Lee asked me about what kind of person Que Ngoc Hai was. In fact, Coach Park and assistant Lee had been following him for quite a while and also opened YouTube to review his collision situations for analysis.

After that, Coach Park called Ngoc Hai up to join the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers against Jordan, but I remember that he did not play. Coach Park spent some time to see if Ngoc Hai would change or not, because the SLNA players' playing style was too fierce. And what Ngoc Hai has shown and contributed, we have all acknowledged.

Beautiful memories of assistant Le Huy Khoa at the AFC U23 Championship. Photo: NVCC

Another case is Cong Phuong. We know that Cong Phuong never played defensively before. However, after the 18th Asian Games, things have changed. There were times when Cong Phuong had to retreat deep to get the ball. In general, Coach Park and his assistants studied and analyzed their players very carefully.

PV:As a native of Nghe An and the national teams have many players from Nghe An. In your opinion, how does Coach Park Hang-seo evaluate the players from Nghe An and SLNA players?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:I see that Mr. Park loves and evaluates the players equally, not paying too much attention to where the players come from. It seems that he knows that Nghe An is the land that produces many talented players and has made certain contributions to Vietnamese football, but he does not specifically evaluate SLNA players!

Because between the two SLNA players Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh, there are also differences. If Xuan Manh is always like a tank, extremely solid and brave, Phan Van Duc is extremely flexible like a winding dragon, playing with his mind and not as strong as his compatriot. There is one thing that I think Mr. Park always admits that Nghe An players have a "fiery, fierce competition".

Coach Park Hang-seo is a person with a thoughtful working style. Photo: Nhu Nguyen

PV:Since Coach Park Hang-seo arrived, many successes have come to Vietnamese football and the national team in particular. In your opinion, what is the basis for the Vietnamese team to have the current success and does Coach Park Hang-seo have anything to say to you about those successes?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:We see that success has brought many changes to Mr. Park. However, if you watch closely, he always tries to maintain a calm, normal mindset to approach everything. He is very experienced and adept at managing his own life. After the miracle in Changzhou, Mr. Park told the players: “Hey! Just take it easy. When you return to the club, you must be very careful. You must understand that fame and money are like clouds. One day they will disappear.”

As for the players in the national team, I think the reason we are successful is that we are very united and conscious. The awareness of the players about their profession is very high now. During the two months the team has been concentrating, there is no smoking, alcohol and beer are prohibited, and the lifestyle is very healthy. Unity, determination, and a "fiery" competitive spirit are the secrets to the success of the Vietnam team.

Assistant Le Huy Khoa is very close to the Vietnamese players. Photo: NVCC

PV:Up to now, it can be said that you are a successful person with your work. “Learning another language is living another life”. What advice do you have for young people who are passionate about foreign languages?

Language assistant Le Huy Khoa:For young people, you should learn foreign languages ​​and any language is fine. As for football, I think that if Vietnamese football wants to develop, there must be a lot of Vietnamese players playing abroad. As we can see, the Japanese national team has 22 players, of which 19 have played abroad and played officially.

For Vietnamese players, I think they should improve their foreign languages ​​to integrate as quickly as possible. In the 4.0 era, to be successful, young people in general need to have a skill to exploit knowledge to integrate into the globalization era. And the most important skill is foreign languages.

PV:Thanks for sharing!

How important is Phan Van Duc in coach Park Hang-seo's 3-4-3 formation?

(Baonghean.vn) – Since the match against Thailand in the first leg of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, coach Park Hang-seo has not had the services of midfielder Phan Van Duc. And that is also part of the reason why coach Park's 3-4-3 tactical formation has increasingly fewer goals.