U20 Vietnam and the big things after the cruel ending

But football is not only about winning or losing, luck but also about lessons, about striving to win in the future, especially for talented young players. More than ever, teachers and studentsU20 VietnamWe must review fully and objectively what we have gained from this continental tournament, the lessons not only for U20 but also for Vietnamese football, the ways to quickly shorten the gap between us and the advanced football teams of the continent such as Iran, Japan, Australia, Korea...

U20 Vietnam had to stop playing at U20 Asia 2023. Source: Zing.vn

Not only domestic experts and media, but also regional and continental media, clearly understand the “background” of each U20 player participating in this final round. Accordingly, U20 Vietnam has 7 players who have played in the V-League, but it is worth noting that they are only supporting players in this important campaign. Dinh Xuan Tien, Tran Nam Hai and Bui Vi Hao are important players in Song Lam Nghe An and Binh Duong in the last 4 rounds.

In fact, in this tournament, only Vi Hao started once (full first half of the match against Iran), the rest came off the bench and were very close to scoring when they had shots on target. Nam Hai only entered the field for the last few minutes in both first matches when everything was almost settled. Xuan Tien, who played very well in the qualifying round and was predicted by AFC to be a bright star, unfortunately was not used for even a minute! In general, many people are quite surprised by this situation and currently there is not enough information or basis to say why?

Meanwhile, the 5 players who made the strongest impression in the 3 group stage matches, according to a foreign expert, are Duc Viet, Van Truong, Thanh Nhan, Van Khang and Quoc Viet, but have never played in the starting lineup in V-League 2023. In our opinion, not only the 5 names mentioned above, but also Van Cuong, Van Binh, Nguyen Hoang, Duc Phu... also made an impression no less than their teammates. And it is worth mentioning that the following names, in addition to Van Cuong in the first team of Song Lam Nghe An, Duc Phu in the first division team of Pho Hien, the rest are currently playing in the youth teams of Song Lam Nghe An.

Ranking of Group B of the 2023 AFC U20 Championship final round after the final round of matches. Source: Zing.vn

Foreign experts believe that the loss to U20 Iran shows that the U20 Vietnam players lack tactical awareness and international competition experience, which is of course an objective view. But in fact, even domestic experience cannot be said to be extensive for the entire squad of players, as they only practice and compete mainly in youth tournaments, only a few compete in the first division and V-League as mentioned above. Players who have played in the U19 Southeast Asian tournament or the U20 Asian qualifiers, trained abroad for a few matches, the U17 players who went to Germany to compete more... can have some experience but not to the extent of difficulty and suffocation like in the final round when the opponents are top teams.

Not only U20, but also U23 or Vietnam National Team, if they want to progress and improve, they must compete regularly, compete with really strong teams. First of all, they must be named in the matches in the First Division, especially in the V-League. Next, they must compete in regional and continental cups, not to mention other domestic and foreign training tournaments. In addition to the regulation that each First Division or V-League team must have 01 young player in the starting lineup in each half and match, it should be carried out in parallel with at least each V-League team participating in an accompanying youth tournament, to select the force for the first team, and also to give the field to the declining first team players to regain their inherent form... That is the job of the Federation, of the VPF, of the teams to synchronously and on a large scale implement a possible long-term strategy.

Currently, Mr. Philippe Troussier has talked about dozens of U20 players being "planned for the 32nd SEA Games and 5-7 players being targeted for the Vietnam National Team's squad heading to the World Cup. That is good news, a well-founded and confident assertion. The problem is how the young stars who are playing in the V-League but are sitting out or participating very little in the recent harsh U20 tournament will continue to perform in reality, when the views of the coaches are both similar and "different" is a real and not strange thing.

The problem is that there must be a real “playground”, real competition for the players to practice and mature. If it continues like yesterday and now, we can try to play well in a few matches, but the longer it goes, the weaker we will feel, with many limitations, as seen at the end of the second half of the third match against U20 Iran and the cruel outcome that no one wants but has to accept./.