Is Vietnam team ready for the World Cup dream?

Good seeds...

There is no need to wait until now, but only when the Vietnamese team plays steadily in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers will experts and fans be sure that the national team really has hope.

A squad of quality players in their prime, along with talented coach Park Hang Seo, has helped the Vietnamese team convincingly enter the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup for the first time.

Vietnam team has the best players... Photo: Hai Hoang

But no matter how convincing and hopeful, the reality at this time does not allow the Vietnamese team to dream of the 2022 World Cup, as coach Park Hang Seo himself said, it is not possible.

The Korean coach is clearly very realistic, because to win 4.5 places to attend the 2022 World Cup in Asia, it is difficult for the Vietnamese team to compete with Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia... even the UAE.

However, in 3 years, things will probably be different when the generation of Cong Phuong, Quang Hai... reaches the peak of their careers so that Vietnamese football can completely dream of reaching the 2026 World Cup, without even needing to increase their capacity in the finals.

...what is needed to bear sweet fruit

During the days when Coach Park Hang Seo and his team were concentrating and participating in the remaining matches of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, there was a piece of information that was not too "hot" for fans, but for experts, it was the opposite: Mr. Philippe Troussier said goodbye to Vietnamese football.

The reason why the relationship between Vietnamese football and the former technical director of PVF training center was broken was because of the end of the contract, but the deeper reason was different. VFF did not have enough money to pay the salary of the former coach who had led many teams to participate in the World Cup.

It is hard to blame VFF for letting Mr. Troussier “get away” because in reality, from before he came to help U19 Vietnam as captain until the end of his contract, the million-dollar salary that the French coach received was completely paid by the former owner of PVF.

VFF cannot afford Troussier's salary, so the plan to participate in the 2026 World Cup with the current generation of players plus the young talents of the U19 Vietnam team currently coached by the French coach suddenly becomes more difficult.

In short, if Vietnamese football wants to go to the World Cup, in addition to having a strong team, it needs to build a long-term and in-depth strategy, and to do that, it needs a lot of money.

...and a civilized cheering environment. Photo: Hai Hoang

A "heavy purse" is of course not enough, but it is also a very important factor for the Vietnamese team to be able to go abroad for training, compete with stronger opponents... to change in expertise, besides improving the quality of youth training.

In addition to the "first" issue, the smallest things like cheering culture, how fans and players respond to failure, and professionals are also forced to change.

Not to raise your opinion, but a developed and civilized football clearly shows that attacking referees and opponents on social media like recently after the loss to UAE needs to stop.

Vietnamese football has favorable human conditions to develop, now it just needs a catalyst for aspiration and a clean, civilized environment to make the World Cup dream come true.