Will Ho Chi Minh City volleyball improve?

Having won all 5 matches in the first round of the National Championship and opened the Hung Vuong Cup with a resounding 3-0 victory over Da Nang, the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team is confident that they will do the same in the final match on April 8, regardless of who their opponents are among the two military teams, Border Guard MB and The Cong Tan Cang.

Start over

In October 2024, Coach Vu Van Duan and his students defeated all opponents in the national A-class tournament, officially winning the right to return to the top playground of Vietnamese volleyball. 7 years is not long but also not too short a time for a sports team that used to play at the top level, but because of the mechanism, along with the development direction depending on the industry's policy, it always had to hide in the lower-level playgrounds.

Ho Chi Minh City Police flourish with a squad of high-class domestic players and quality foreign players. Photo: TRONG ANH

With the industry's football teams being allowed to return to the professional playing field since the early 2020s, the Ho Chi Minh City Police volleyball team was "reborn". Rising from almost zero when having to start over with a team of young players, the 2024 season is truly a turning point for this team.

With a huge investment, Ho Chi Minh City Police Club was also lucky to recruit a team of high-class domestic players such as Giang Van Duc, Pham Thai Hung, Nguyen Van Hanh, Lam Van Sanh, Le Quang Doan, Bui Xuan Tien... This invincible team overcame all opponents, including strong teams such as VLXD Binh Duong or Ho Chi Minh City team to officially win the 2024 National A-League championship.

A team full of ambition and dedication

No specific performance targets were assigned to the Ho Chi Minh City Police Club in the 2025 season. However, looking at the huge investment, in addition to the high-class domestic players such as Quan Trong Nghia, Pham Quoc Du, Nguyen Van Quoc Duy, Dinh Van Tu, and foreign players such as Michał Kubiak and Julio Cesar Cardenas, it is hard to believe that this team would accept mediocre performance.

Up to this point, apart from 2 defeats in the semi-finals and the 3rd place match of the Binh Dien - Hoa Lu Cup Friendly Tournament, Ho Chi Minh City Police Club has won all matches since the beginning of 2025, from 5 group stage matches at the National Championship to the 1st semi-final match of the Hung Vuong Cup!

According to General Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Volleyball Federation Ha Vu Son, if successful in the Hung Vuong Cup, it will be a great encouragement for the team that everyone thinks is "strong because of rice, bold because of money" but is actually a group full of aspirations, always united, and unanimously aiming for victory.

With only about a month to "assemble" the squad consisting of mostly new recruits, the two foreign players Michal Kubiak and Julio Cesar Cardenas even only had a week to get acquainted with their teammates, but Ho Chi Minh City Police has proven its strength. According to experts, there have been many new recruits who have played very well right after being promoted, but the fact that Ho Chi Minh City Police won all 5 matches to top the first round of the national championship is unprecedented.

The team's ability to win the Hung Vuong Cup is also very high when it is the only team using 3 foreign players and playing overwhelmingly against Da Nang, making both Border Guard MB and The Cong Tan Cang - one of the 2 teams that will play in the final match - very wary.

Long journey ahead

The Ho Chi Minh City men's team is waiting to compete for promotion from the National A League while the Ho Chi Minh City women's team is the only team to lose all 5 matches in the first round of the 2025 National Championship. The information is not necessarily positive when it comes to the return of Ho Chi Minh City volleyball, once the cradle of volleyball in the country.

Lacking a suitable operating mechanism and unable to attract large investors for long-term plans, Ho Chi Minh City volleyball has been sluggish after a short "revival" period in 2018 and 2019. The story of the key players of the Ho Chi Minh City men's team demanding payment of unpaid salaries and leaving for most of 2023 is not a new lesson, because even the Ho Chi Minh City women's team considers promotion and relegation as "a daily occurrence" due to similar poor conditions that have lasted for many years.

The phenomenon of Ho Chi Minh City Police being welcomed by volleyball fans is indicated by the reason that this team is stationed in the city! Even the Ho Chi Minh City Volleyball Federation only plays a professional consulting role, advising on foreign player recruitment deals and supporting procedures when competing in the national tournament system. The athletes of Ho Chi Minh City Police are mostly from other provinces, not many members are trained in the city, and are attached to the team mainly through short-term contracts...

There is still a long way to go to confirm that Ho Chi Minh City volleyball will regain its golden age. Changing an outdated way of thinking about volleyball, from relying on the state budget to having a team of truly dedicated professionals is still a difficult problem for the city's volleyball.

"The opportunity to win the first major title after 7 months of promotion, or more precisely, after more than 7 years of waiting, is wide open for the Ho Chi Minh City Police team.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/bong-chuyen-tp-hcm-se-khoi-sac-196250405212137443.htm