Why are young SLNA stars gradually losing their names in U23 Vietnam?

Just one day after the resounding victory ofU23 Vietnamagainst U23 Thailand in the final match of men's football SEA Games 31, the list of U23 Vietnam to prepare for the U23 Asian Cup in June under the leadership of new coach Gong Oh-kyun was announced. Accordingly, 25 players were called up, including 14 who just won the SEA Games gold medal and typical names who were called up to the training camp in parallel with the competition process of coach Park Hang-seo and his team. At the same time, coach Park Hang-seo also announced the list of Vietnam national team to prepare for the friendly match with Afghanistan national team.

What makes football fans in general and Nghe An football fans in particular feel confused, regretful and ask why in these lists, especially in the U23 Vietnam for several consecutive rounds, there are completely absent players from the famous youth training center SLNA?

U23 Vietnam. Photo archive

Let's look back at the brilliant development period of Vietnamese football, starting from the time the Korean coach, Mr. Park Hang-seo took the helm, in 2017. The first official tournament this coach debuted was the 2018 AFC U23 Championship in Changzhou, China, and the SLNA players called at that time were Van Duc and Xuan Manh, who were two cases that were called up... but managed to shine in time, later one of the two became the coach's "favorite student" until now.

Coach Park Hang-seo's two important and successful tournaments are the AFF Cup 2018 and the 30th SEA Games 2019, the number of players from SLNA in the Vietnam National Team is still only Van Duc (not counting Ngoc Hai and Trong Hoang who have moved away), and in the U23, Trong Hoang is over 23 years old but is currently a Viettel player. At the recent 31st SEA Games, the final list of 20 players also did not have any names from SLNA, although midfielder Van Lam made it to the round of 25, not to mention that before that there were names like Van Viet, Sy Hoang, Ba Sang... And at the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, there were also no SLNA names, although the head coach of the U23 Vietnam team was transferred from Coach Park Hang-seo to a completely new name, Gong Oh-kyun.

To see, although in the past, the youth training achievements of SLNA were very impressive, but recently they have fallen behind the strong development of Hanoi, Viettel, HAGL, PVF, SLNA can continuously win the top spot in the U11, U13, U15, U17 tournaments... the latest is the achievement of Dinh Xuan Tien-Van Cuong generation at the U17 tournament in 2020, but up to the U19, U21 generation is a completely different story. At the U17 tournament in 2020, Xuan Tien and his teammates completely dominated the game against opponents of the same age, but only 2 years later, at the U19 finals, SLNA still had those talents but returned to being "underdogs" and losing to U19 NutiFood Academy, U19 Hanoi, U19 Vettel...? The biggest hope of SLNA is this generation of players, but they quickly fell behind after only a few years, like Van Truong of Hanoi U19 who was just called up to Vietnam U23, and Xuan Tien, despite being full of hope, is still far away from reaching his glorious dream?

So why is it that the foundation is good from the beginning, but the higher the level, the lower the achievements of the "little champions" SLNA are compared to their opponents? Is it true that the "input" of SLNA, which mainly recruits students within the province, cannot be compared to other training centers, when they widely recruit students from the whole region and the whole country? Is it true that training children with experience, according to old methods, cannot be compared to scientific, advanced methods, taught by foreign teachers? Answering these questions, is it true that we can find a specific "answer" to the fact that the number of SLNA training centers is increasingly absent from the official "closing" rounds of the most important tournaments of national football?

By the way, I would like to quote the words of U23 Vietnam player Van Xuan who participated in the 31st SEA Games when talking about youth training. Van Xuan was trained at PVF, played at Hong Linh Ha Tinh Club and is now part of Hanoi FC, replacing Van Hau when this player was treated for an injury. Van Xuan said that, when he was training at PVF as well as when he returned to Hanoi FC, "there is nothing to worry about, just focus on playing football. But when playing, you have to show your talent. Not winning the championship is a failure". And the most important thing that helps this player and his teammates become more confident is to regularly compete and compete. "In other places, young players only play about 10 matches/year. We play 20 matches, which is normal. In 2016, I played about 60 matches, and traveled abroad continuously. Of which, there were about 30 matches in Japan..."

While somewhere is satisfied, proud of the initial achievements, the achievements in internal competitions, competing with teams that are more movement-oriented, when facing the training centers like PVF where Van Xuan used to practice, Viettel training center of Thanh Binh, Manh Dung, Tuan Tai... there is only total failure. That is not to mention the story of talented players "treating injuries by applying leaves", how can they "dream" of going far, moving forward?

What needs to be said is that in the times the national team was called up, not only were there people from Hanoi, Viettel, HAGL... with fierce competition like the way Van Tung and Van Truong, who had just played in the U19 group, "overcame" their seniors Xuan Tu and Van Dat (both at Hanoi Club) to make it into the official list, but there were also Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Binh Duong...? There was no "proud furnace" there, but there were still top stars called up to the national team, while the famous furnace SLNA for the past 3-4 years only "passed" with difficulty only Van Duc, now there is Ngoc Hai who has just returned, and that's it?

Of course, there is still a consolation that many SLNA players are talented but do not fit the football philosophy of Coach Park, Coach Gong, like Van Quyet, Huu Tuan, Van Trien, Van Vu... have had to accept for a long time. So let's try, work hard, overcome, and demonstrate our qualities and abilities in another playground, such as V. League, AFF Champions for example?

By then, whether you are called or not, there is no need to worry or fret, just believing in yourself is enough, right?