We can't rely solely on Mr. Kim.

Vietnam's ambitions

Vietnam's AFF Cup 2024 championship came from several factors: improved fighting spirit, coach Kim Sang-sik's flexible player selection and sound tactics, and the outstanding performance of newcomer Nguyen Xuan Son.

However, the core of Kim's team's success still stems from improving physical fitness, which is the key to unlocking any tactical system. Simply put, when players are fitter and more resilient, they can play defensive counter-attacking football or control possession. Without sufficient stamina, any tactical philosophy will inevitably encounter problems.

Coach Kim Sang-sik and the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) have planned a 10-day training camp in South Korea, which is a crucial turning point for the Vietnamese national team.

The Vietnamese team (in red jerseys) were faster and fitter.

During their 10-day stay in South Korea, the players underwent rigorous physical training exercises focusing on endurance, strength, and speed according to Korean standards. According to the team, the coaching staff meticulously recorded the players' performance data for each exercise. Coach Kim Sang-sik himself acknowledged the players' progress to Thanh Nien newspaper: "The difference between Vietnamese and Korean players is not significant. Perhaps, the only difference is that Vietnamese players still have hidden strengths that can be further revealed."

Recognizing the improvement in his players' physical condition, coach Kim Sang-sik boldly adopted a strategy focused on solid defense, wearing down the opponent in the first half, before unleashing his finishing move in the second half. The Vietnamese team wouldn't have been able to score goals in the 90+14th or 90+19th minutes if they had maintained their previous "weak" physical condition.

However, improving physical fitness at the national team level is only addressing the symptoms. With the unique characteristic of having 5-6 training camps per year (each lasting about 10-15 days), players have significantly less time working with Coach Kim compared to the club level. Therefore, proper physical training needs to be implemented at the club level.

A positive sign is that more and more teams are raising their awareness of physical training, such as Binh Duong FC, Hanoi FC, and Hanoi Police FC (CAHN FC), which have invested heavily in hiring foreign fitness coaches. At Binh Duong FC, when coach Hoang Anh Tuan was still in charge, he, along with technical director Jurgen Gede and the fitness coach, analyzed players' health parameters through a GPS system.

Good physical fitness helps the whole team play persistently and resiliently until the very last minute.

HAGL, with technical director Vu Tien Thanh and head coach Le Quang Trai, also uses data for training. The team from the mountainous region plans to open a sports science room to apply data and statistics more thoroughly in their physical training.

The road ahead is long.

However, Vietnamese football still has a long way to go to reach international standards. Proof of this is that many Vietnamese players who went abroad to South Korea, Japan, or Europe have "run out of steam" because they couldn't keep up with the physical demands and training methods in more advanced football nations.

In 2019, a foreign expert who had visited Vietnam shared with Thanh Nien Newspaper: "Players need to train more, both on the field and in the gym. The combined volume of two or three training sessions in V-League teams is only equivalent to one training session in Europe. Training sessions also need to be more intense, faster, and stronger for players to improve."

What are the benefits of intense and proper training? Let's look at Thanh Hoa FC. When he first took over the team in 2023, coach Velizar Popov put his players through an incredibly demanding training regimen. Many players were exhausted from trying to keep up with the rigorous methods, but Coach Popov promised that if the training plan wasn't effective, he would leave. And then, Thanh Hoa FC won three cups in two years, becoming one of the most passionate and resilient teams in Vietnam today.

Coach Popov improves the physical fitness of Thanh Hoa players.

Furthermore, to improve players' physical fitness, the V-League needs to increase the playing time. Currently, matches are only played for about 50-55 minutes, which is less than two-thirds of the total time. Many matches are fragmented by fouls, players faking injuries to waste time, etc., which both diminishes the entertainment value and causes players to lose stamina due to insufficient running time.

Coach Park Hang-seo once mentioned: "I want the players to improve their physical fitness. Very few players can run 10 km per match, while this is the average for players. I have to push the players to run an additional 1-2 km. And also high-intensity running."

A first-division coach stated, "To develop players, we need to increase the playing time in every match." This is also what coach Kim Sang-sik desires. When the quality of the game improves, players will naturally progress. Vietnamese football needs to improve from the root, instead of leaving it up to Mr. Kim to solve all the problems.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/muon-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-khoe-hon-khong-the-trong-cho-moi-thay-kim-185250117133940988.htm