Issues surrounding Tien Linh's Golden Ball; Stirring up controversy with Coach Troussier

Issues surrounding Tien Linh's Golden Ball

Nguyen Tien Linh won the Vietnam Golden Ball, simply because he was the best candidate, ensuring the balance of two criteria: good at both club and national team.

At Binh Duong Club, Tien Linh scored a total of 13 goals. His influence is shown in his ability to lead the game, which is still progressing and improving, even though he is at a stage where many players are "saturated" in form and satisfied with what they have.

As for the Vietnamese team, despite being overshadowed by Nguyen Xuan Son's glory at the ASEAN Cup 2024, Tien Linh still scored 4 goals (against Laos, Myanmar, and Singapore).

Although Tien Linh's performance for the club and the national team was only 7 or 8 points, he got both. Something that the competing candidates only got one.

Tien Linh is better than other candidates, but not necessarily to completely convince fans.

This year’s candidates for the Vietnam Golden Ball prove that the quality of Vietnamese football is just like that at the moment. There are no new faces, no breakthrough performances, but all of them stop at the level of victory being reserved for the “less bad” person.

Tien Linh is the best Vietnamese player in 2024, but the Vietnamese team must import a foreign striker to replace his position.

Vietnam Team: Coach Kim Sang-sik needs to rejuvenate if he wants to go far

Coach Kim Sang-sik probably needs to gradually consider rejuvenating the team.Vietnam teamIn the coming time, if you want to succeed in the 2027 Asian Cup or further with the 2030 World Cup qualifiers.

Looking at the squad that just won the biggest regional tournament, the Korean strategist can completely rest assured to use them for a few more years as most of the players are under 30 years old, except for Nguyen Filip, Dinh Trieu and Doan Ngoc Tan.

However, he needs to calculate and start implementing the rejuvenation of the Vietnamese team soon, because after a few years, the current pillars such as Duy Manh, Quang Hai, or Tien Linh... may not be good enough to conquer the heights ahead.

The plan to integrate young players as done in the recent ASEAN Cup 2024 is considered quite reasonable, coach Kim Sang-sik was right to bring a few names in the U23 age group to the biggest tournament in the region.

However, success with Van Khang, Hai Long or Vi Hao does not mean that Mr. Kim Sang-sik will easily find more young faces good enough to supplement the Vietnamese team.

The next generation, the U22-23 generation of Vietnamese football, is not necessarily inferior, but their level and ability are still at a considerable distance from their seniors in the national team.

Making waves with Coach Troussier

Indonesian media suddenly reported about coach Troussier after billionaire Erick Thohir announced the new technical director of the archipelago team.

Indonesian newspaper Bola suddenly published an article with the title: PSSI is said to have met with the failed coach of the Vietnam national team to invite him to become the technical director. This information mentioned Coach Troussier, the former head coach of the Vietnam national team.

According to Indonesian media, PSSI President Erick Thohir announced the appointment of Jordi Cruyff as technical director. They emphasized that this information had caused confusion for some fans, including rumors that Erick Thohir had met with coach Troussier. This incident attracted much attention from Indonesian fans, because coach Troussier used to lead the Vietnamese national team.

In fact, Erick Thohir has officially confirmed: “I have invited a person to take on the role of technical director for the Indonesian team. That is Jordi Cruyff, who was the sporting director of Barcelona in 2023.”

Van Nistelrooy sinks deep with Leicester

Early morning of February 28, home team West Ham United had an easy match when they defeated Leicester City with a score of 2-0. Both goals were scored in the first half.

West Ham took the lead in the 21st minute through Tomas Soucek. In the 43rd minute, Jarrod Bowen continued his excellent form when he finished from a tight angle, the ball hit Vestergaard's foot and went into the net, leaving Leicester's defense helpless.

West Ham, with a 2-goal advantage, controlled the match and played a solid defense. This was the first time the "Hammers" won 2 consecutive matches in the Premier League since the beginning of the season, helping them surpass Everton and equal points with Tottenham and Manchester United in the middle of the rankings.

West Ham climbed to 15th place, creating a 16-point gap over Ipswich and Leicester, thereby temporarily putting relegation worries aside.