Vietnam team and the story of 'domestic coach' winning ticket to World Cup

The Year of the Tiger 2022 is bringing great joy to domestic football fans whenVietnam National Teamwon the first match in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia against China (3-1) and the Vietnamese women's team won their first ticket to the 2023 Women's World Cup after winning 2 consecutive matches in the play-off round against Thailand (2-0) and Chinese Taipei (2-1).

While Vietnamese men's football still has a lot to do to realize the World Cup dream, futsal (twice in a row in 2016 and 2021) and women's football (2023) have achieved satisfactory results on the development path of these two sports.

The Vietnamese women's football team burst into joy. Photo: VFF

What is even more proud is that futsal football, from the first time using a foreign coach to win a ticket to the World Cup, the next time a domestic coach was able to shoulder and excellently complete the assigned task with the success of Mr. Pham Minh Giang and his team.

The same goes for women's football. After achieving success with foreign coaches at the SEA Games but failing to achieve the dream ticket in the continental arena, the person who steered women's football to the world stage was Mr. Mai Duc Chung. These are two talented and dedicated domestic coaches who, together with their students, seized the opportunity, turned every possibility into reality, and gradually brought Vietnamese football to the world stage.

The interesting thing about the road to the World Cup for futsal and women's football is that they both had to go through two thrilling and exciting play-off matches. Coach Pham Minh Giang's futsal team had to face the Lebanese team in two away matches in May 2021 and had to wait until the extremely dramatic second leg with Chau Doan Phat's away goal (even though the other team equalized) to get their hands on the precious World Cup ticket.

The 3-1 victory over China brought the Vietnamese team its first point in the third qualifying round of the World Cup and signaled a cool breeze of change. Photo: Viet Linh

The Vietnamese women's team led by coach Mai Duc Chung at the 2022 Asian Women's Football Championship fell into a group of death with the Japanese, Korean and Myanmar women's teams. The crucial match with the Myanmar women's team ended in a 2-2 draw, but thanks to the advantage in previous goals/losses, Huynh Nhu and her teammates ranked 3rd, entering the quarterfinals to meet the Chinese team. Miraculously, against a big opponent (the future champion of the tournament), the young players of Mr. Mai Duc Chung (some key players were given a rest to recuperate) played a great match, scoring first and holding the score in the first half. If luckier, the Vietnamese women's team could have only lost by a narrow margin to the Chinese women's team if the penalty had not hit the crossbar?

And from careful calculations for that long-term journey in the context of Covid-19, hot weather, playing at noon... Mr. Mai Duc Chung has the strongest force for the two decisive matches in the play-off round with familiar opponents Thailand and Chinese Taipei. Even though the opponent has the advantage in goals (3>2) after the result against Thailand, but with resilience and reasonable tactics, Huynh Nhu and his teammates have won a historic victory to win the ticket to the World Cup for the first time, forcing the opponent to continue playing in the upcoming intercontinental play-off round to win the remaining ticket.

The joy of Truong Thi Kieu who headed the ball to score in the 7th minute of the match against Taiwan (China). Photo: VFF

Fans and experts know well the difficult journey of both the futsal team and the women's team to reach the world. The Covid-19 pandemic prevented both the futsal and women's tournaments from being fully organized. Although they were able to train abroad (both in Spain), the conditions were very difficult, both teachers and students contracted Covid during the training process, traveling to the competition venue as well as during the competition. However, overcoming all difficulties and obstacles, both Mr. Pham Minh Giang and Mr. Mai Duc Chung always had a steady hand on the helm, helping their students overcome nerve-wracking matches to gain the advantage and reach the victory.

Chau Doan Phat's goal in the second leg against Lebanon in futsal, Bich Thuy's goal in the match against Chinese Taipei after a pass from Thai Thi Thao... are decisive "punches", unexpected, classic attacks that futsal and women's football launched at the right time, and will certainly leave a strong mark in the history of Vietnamese football's development, under the skillful hands of domestic coaches.

The joy of the Vietnamese team when scoring a goal against the Chinese team. Photo: Hai Hoang

Vietnamese men's football has long needed foreign coaches to reach out of the region and advance to the continent, but there is still a big gap compared to top opponents like Japan and Korea, and the ticket to the World Cup is still a long and thorny road ahead, and so far, the story of domestic coaches reaping success seems to be... impossible? Meanwhile, futsal and women's football with domestic coaches, although they have not been able to close the gap with top opponents in the continent, have been able to "sit at the same table" when it comes to the World Cup and the gap is gradually narrowing. That is a proud result and the successful use of domestic coaches is still a hot lesson for both men's and women's football, futsal and beach football in the coming time./.