V.League 2022 and the race in the Vietnam national team

After the historic victory ofVietnam National Teamagainst the neighboring Chinese team on February 1, the first day of the Lunar New Year 2022, the national team players were "released from camp" to return home to celebrate Tet, some even went straight to their clubs for personal reasons and immediately started the spring training session on the third day of Tet towards V. League 2022 like HAGL's central defender Huu Tuan. To see immediately, never before has the story of the national team and V. League, through the clubs, been so closely connected, resonated with each other, and raised to the same level as now.

Vietnam National Team

As many people know, the 2021 V. League season was canceled due to the pandemic and immediately that greatly affected the national teams participating in fronts such as the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Asia, the 2022 AFF Cup, the group stage of the U23 Asia... The force of the Vietnam National Team as well as the U23 Vietnam team is almost "framed" by the familiar pillars that Mr. Park Hang-seo has trusted for the past 3-4 years, with very few significant additions when the need to renew the squad is always more urgent than ever.

During the 7 matches in the 3rd qualifying round, Mr. Park Hang-seo almost only knew how to "cut his coat according to his cloth" with the old frame and if there was any change, it was only due to unavoidable circumstances such as penalty cards, injuries or Covid-19. The young force of U23 Vietnam also had no changes, not showing much hope in the final round of U23 Asia when playing unimpressively in the group stage.

The number of better U23 players that Mr. Park Hang-seo "sent" to the Vietnam National Team is just a temporary measure, serving some experiments, but it seems that only Van Xuan played 45 minutes in the match against the Australian National Team, Viet Anh played 45 minutes in the recent match against the Chinese National Team is temporarily reassuring. The remaining Thanh Binh, Van Toan, Thanh Minh... after what they have shown, certainly show that the path to the national team is still full of thorns and the actual competition in the upcoming V. League 2022 will be a difficult test for these potential factors.

Until the match against Australia and especially China in the third qualifying round, which is the "refreshment, re-start" step of Mr. Park Hang-seo, it can be imagined that some of the former pillars of the Vietnam National Team have recently lost motivation or reached a threshold that will force them to find themselves again, to reaffirm themselves in the V. League if they want to continue to be called up to the national team. If these old players can find their motivation again, they will not only serve the two matches of the Vietnam National Team against Oman and Japan in March, but more importantly, the campaign to regain the AFF Cup championship from rival Thailand at the end of 2022 and defend the 2019 SEA Games gold medal.

The most recent call-up in March will partly show how Mr. Park Hang-seo really "renewes and rebuilds" the force. What the Vietnamese team has done and done excellently in the match against the Chinese team will of course be the basis and premise for building, stabilizing and supplementing the force. Pillars such as Nguyen Manh, Tien Dung, Thanh Chung, Dinh Trong, Viet Anh, Quang Hai, Hoang Duc, Hung Dung, Tien Linh, Tuan Hai, Van Duc, Hong Duy... will continue to be called up and trusted. Old factors such as Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh, Trong Hoang, Van Hau, Van Lam... will continue to be tested after overcoming injuries and recovering from Covid-19.

Some pillars who are in poor form or are not trusted much such as Cong Phuong, Xuan Truong, Tuan Anh, Van Toan, Xuan Manh... will have to try very hard in the V. League if they still hope to have a place in the national team as a... reserve? The irony is that the HAGL stars who played well in the V. League 2021 and then joined the national team gradually lost their positions and fell into the situation of "wearing out their pants" on the bench or only being able to enter the field when the game was already decided. In the exciting match of the Vietnam national team against the Chinese national team, no one was surprised when the HAGL stars only had Hong Duy in the starting lineup? Xuan Manh was called up late, tried to be in the starting lineup in many different positions in the match against the Australian national team but was "returned home early for Tet" in the match against the Chinese national team, which is not a very happy signal when thinking about the upcoming match which is not easy compared to his compatriot Van Duc on the national team?

More than ever, Vietnamese football needs a V. League that goes where it wants, with a stage for every position, especially one that is not occupied by foreign players in the attack and young players waiting for the day to play in the main team. Having a professional, high-quality V. League means having "powder" to "wash into glue" for the national teams. Not to mention, Vietnamese football needs stars to play abroad for real, not just go and return early as has been seen for a long time? There are also overseas Vietnamese players who are called back to the national teams to fill in necessary positions, like the Thais are doing well.

All of this creates a healthy, non-stop competition to gradually raise the level of Vietnamese football, step by step towards winning a ticket to the World Cup in the not too distant future. It all starts today, from the "Spring opening" day of the V. League clubs, the day center back Huu Tuan from the Vietnamese team in My Dinh flew straight to Ham Rong with his teammates to start a new season,...