Why is Van Toan's chance of being the main goalkeeper greater?

True Hai Phong style

The person who brought Van Toan to U23 Vietnam is none other than the goalkeeper coach of Hai Phong Club - Nguyen Duc Canh. Previously in 2016, Van Toan was promoted to the first team of Hai Phong, but immediately this player had an incident and was sent home by the club. To make a living, Van Toan quit his football career and switched to helping his family's aluminum and glass business.

Itching for his job, the 1999-born goalkeeper occasionally went to catch amateur football. After Tet 2018, goalkeeper coach Nguyen Duc Canh called on and encouraged his student to return to the "shorts and numbered shirt" profession to have a goalkeeper for Hai Phong and the national U23 team as it is now. He also introduced Van Toan to Mr. Park to prepare for the 30th SEA Games.

Goalkeeper Van Toan (right) is in good form at U23 Vietnam. Photo: AT

Up to now, Van Toan has shown the "true quality of Phong" like the previous disciples of coach Duc Canh. The playing style is in the classic model, exactly like the seniors Dinh Xuan Viet, Dang Van Lam or Vu Hai, trying to catch the ball safely, using his hands as much as possible. With an impressive height (1.86m), Van Toan is proactive in controlling the penalty area and handling high balls well, has strengths in reflexes, the ability to direct the defense, while the ability to play with his feet, and the ability to serve the ball to attack of the Hai Phong goalkeeper is rated as... very poor.

In his first season playing in V.League 2019, Van Toan played 14 matches, conceded 19 goals, an average of 1.3 goals/match, and kept a clean sheet in 2 matches, which are considered average stats for a 20-year-old goalkeeper. Van Toan's mistake in Philippens is classified as a lack of ability to judge the situation, due to his lack of experience in competition, in contrast to his senior Tien Dung, who was too confident and ended up overreacting.

Best performing substitute

The story of senior Bui Tien Dung is even more ironic. Although he is the champion of V.League 2019 and SEA Games 30, 2019 is considered a failure for the goalkeeper from Thanh Hoa in terms of expertise. Bui Tien Dung is currently the reserve player with the best record on the Vietnamese football field.

After two years of professional competition, Tien Dung’s “flight hours” are far behind his junior Van Toan. In addition to individual titles, Tien Dung is at a disadvantage in the competition between the club, the U22 and U23 teams and is at a disadvantage after making “hard to handle” professional mistakes.

The handling needs to be simple and safe, but Bui Tien Dung wants to show his professional ability according to his past level, which caused him to have accidents both at Hanoi Club and SEA Games 30, if he ignores the 2018 season in Thanh Hoa's shirt. The number of mistakes exceeds the standard for a goalkeeper who has won a continental title.

Trends in activities and directions and distances of attacking kicks of the 2 goalkeepers. Photo: Van Phu.

The trend of renewing himself, showing a modern style, showing himself as a goalkeeper capable of switching from defense to attack well of Tien Dung is not wrong. But it seems that time and training methods have not brought Tien Dung to the level he desires and no one has shown this goalkeeper. In the handling situation at SEA Games 30, there were 10 goalkeepers, 9 of them, including international-class goalkeepers, would choose the option of pushing the ball gently over the crossbar to receive a corner kick, the only one who chose the "highly difficult" option was Dung and made a mistake.

Teammates are still with Tien Dung, Mr. Park did not abandon his student, the proof is that he even gave the captain's armband to the goalkeeper of Ho Chi Minh City in the friendly match in Korea. But whether he can overcome his mentality to seize the rare opportunities that his teacher gives him depends on this goalkeeper himself.

Not far away, Dung’s teacher, goalkeeper coach The Anh, once made a serious mistake when playing for the national team. But this goalkeeper from Nghe An overcame difficulties to move up, a lesson that could not be better for Bui Tien Dung.

At this point, if Mr. Park chooses Van Toan, the "uncertified copy" of national team goalkeeper Van Lam because of his professional stability, it is not too strange.