Van Hau and the story of the 'remake' of the Vietnamese team

This short dialogue turns out to contain many things worth mentioning about the two "arch-rivals" in the region whose race will certainly last long, consuming much ink and intelligence of many people in the coming time.

Not only Vietnamese experts and fans, but also in Indonesia, have long remembered and even been "bitter" with Van Hau. That was the performance at the 31st SEA Games with Van Hau's brilliance and the enmity that followed when a pillar of U23 Indonesia was injured, about the fiery collisions on the sidelines when Indonesia's ultimate weapon, the wing attack, encountered the iron curtain occupied by Van Hau on the right wing of U23 Vietnam and the Vietnamese team. Then, over the past 5 years, Indonesia only had one draw against Vietnam. Then, when Van Hau was injured and could not participate in the 2023 Asian Cup, when meeting the Indonesian team again, the team without Van Hau was awarded a penalty and lost the final match very unexpectedly.

In fact, in this reunion at the 2023 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team will not only be without Van Hau but also Ngoc Hai, Duy Manh, Hoang Duc, Van Lam, Van Duc... due to both injuries and performance. Not to mention the new coach Troussier with a new playing style, new personnel and new calculations when he was determined not to put players who had not recovered from injuries on the field but to give training space to a series of young factors. Losing 1 match to Indonesia, coach Troussier and his team immediately failed in a tournament, the Asian Cup. But there are still 2 tournaments ahead, the 2024 U23 Asian Finals and the 2nd Qualifier for the 2026 World Cup, so everything is not over yet, it is still possible to "do it again" as Van Hau conveyed a meaningful message above.

After the defeat against Indonesia, whether he wants it or not, Mr. Troussier must clearly realize that he cannot fight and win against his opponent if he trusts too much in the young players like he did recently. It is inevitable that the French coach needs to make reasonable use of experienced players like Ngoc Hai, Van Hau, Duy Manh or Hoang Duc alongside increasingly improved juniors like Minh Trong, Tuan Tai, Thai Son or Dinh Bac.

For example, if Van Hau really returns, the peace of mind on the defensive and offensive front on the left wing will be established and the opponent will have to spend a lot of effort and intelligence to neutralize this threat? If Ngoc Hai is healthy, it will help stabilize the defense, and will not let the type of mistake like Thanh Binh recently happen. Most importantly,Vietnam teamwill not be "overwhelmed" or lose ourselves to an opponent who plays fiercely, physically, and diversely. On the contrary, we will force the opponent to huddle together and make mistakes...

The story of "remaking" is clearly not Van Hau's alone but the entire Vietnamese team's to regain what was lost, to avoid an unnecessary decline compared to Indonesia or Thailand after an Asian Cup and most importantly to regain confidence in a long-term, far-reaching strategy under Philippe Troussier's reign.

Therefore, right now, the short common action slogan is "do it again" with 2 immediate tasks because next March, the Vietnamese team will face Indonesia twice in the 2nd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. One is to persist in the general direction outlined on solutions to improve Vietnamese football, not wavering or wavering after a recent loss to continue searching for and selecting new factors, young factors for the long-term race. Two is to exploit and utilize old pillars to lead the new generation, not to break the generation, to create a connection, and to continue firmly for the new journey. Mr. Troussier may be full of personality, persistent in his own unique way of doing things, but he cannot ignore an important part of the Vietnamese audience, an endless resource from the stands and in daily life, listening to legitimate criticism from domestic and foreign experts as well as the media to make reasonable adjustments to everything necessary, helping the Vietnamese team and U23 Vietnam go in the right direction.

Of course, in this process, the entire Vietnamese football industry must carry out three major tasks: improving the quality of the V-League as a long-term and sustainable condition, allowing good players to compete abroad, and increasing the naturalization of overseas Vietnamese players. This "three-legged tripod" will truly help Vietnamese football improve its level, will make opponents surprised, passive, and lose, even though this is not unfamiliar to anyone. Not to mention, Thanh Binh's foul situation when pulling the opponent's shirt, which is an ugly product of the V-League, needs to be considered a valuable lesson, must be condemned and abolished.

If V-League continues to be lenient with such tricks, then when competing internationally, failure is always a foregone conclusion. The job of raising the level of football, if we wait for Mr. Troussier and then blame him, seems unfair, in that sense. It is also to be seen that when Nguyen Filip entered the field, he played well with his inherent class, creating peace of mind for "half of the team" as many people have seen. Obviously, if the Vietnamese team had a few more positions (while Indonesia has 7 naturalized positions), the story would be much more worth telling?

Hopefully, from Van Hau and not only Van Hau, the pillars of Vietnamese football are all ready to join in to "remake" in a practical and effective way. Hopefully, Mr. Troussier will grasp not only the "locker room" of the Vietnamese team, but also the belief, will, sincere and necessary comments of experts and Vietnamese fans to create a Vietnamese team that plays stably and sharply as they did in part in the match against the big opponent Japan recently and more, better in many upcoming tough matches./.