The Futsal World Cup is the most important goal of Vietnamese futsal as we enter the new year 2024. However, in order to realize the dream of participating in the world futsal festival for the third consecutive time, the entire country's futsal community has considered 2023 as a turning point, to join hands in building the foundation for the national team.
Reforming the national futsal tournament system
The Vietnamese futsal team is currently in the top 6 in Asia, and has made it to the round of 16 in two consecutive Futsal World Cups. The success comes from a solid foundation in two national futsal tournaments organized by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), the National Championship (VĐQG) and the National Cup.
However, in order to catch up and integrate with the development of the world futsal cycle, the VFF has adjusted the organization of national futsal tournaments. Specifically, from the 2023 season, each club is allowed to register a maximum of one foreign player and one overseas Vietnamese player to participate in tournaments. The appearance of foreign players will help domestic players improve their professional level. Meanwhile, overseas Vietnamese resources will be introduced to the coaching staff of the Vietnam futsal team in searching for new personnel.
For the National Futsal Championship, VFF has changed the organization to an away (first leg) and home (second leg) format. Leaders hope that this innovation will improve the quality of the tournaments, especially in attracting more attention and investment from sponsors and fans.
The changes from VFF in 2023 have created a new wind for domestic futsal, and the clubs and experts have responded positively. Among them, Thai Son Nam, Sahako FC and Thai Son Bac are the three most typical futsal teams in the past year, not only trying to recruit foreign players, but also introducing promising players.
In a year-end interview with SGGPO, coach Diego Giustozzi of the Vietnam futsal team commented: “Vietnamese futsal players are very good and ready to compete with foreign players in the National Futsal Championship. But from a personal perspective, some foreign players coming to Vietnam to compete are not better than domestic players. I hope this will improve in the 2024 season. More importantly, when Vietnam's futsal league has players, experts and coaches from strong futsal backgrounds in the world, that is a very good thing. Because by competing with quality foreign players, domestic players will be able to improve their skills.”
Vietnam futsal team
Not only changing the national playgrounds, the Vietnamese futsal team itself is constantly innovating. Over the past year, coach Giustozzi has directly worked with nearly 30 players through three training sessions. From there, he began to screen and select the 16 best names to participate in the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship qualifiers, held in Mongolia in October. Here, Pham Duc Hoa and his teammates won the top spot in the group with 3 absolute victories against Mongolia, Nepal and Korea.
In addition to the achievement of qualifying for the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship finals, Giustozzi and his team also actively participated in friendly matches with teams in the world's top 10 to improve their fighting spirit. The highlight in June was that the whole team had two weeks of training in South America, and played three friendly matches with Argentina (ranked 5th in the world) and Uruguay (ranked 10th). Three months later, Duc Hoa and his teammates had two friendly matches with Hungary (ranked 30th) and especially Russia (ranked 4th), in addition to two matches with Solomon Islands (ranked 69th) at the end of May.
2023 is considered a busy year for the Vietnamese futsal team, even though there are no continental or world finals. This shows great concern from the VFF leadership, when creating the best conditions for the Vietnamese futsal team to be able to complete the goal of winning a ticket to the Futsal World Cup 2024, through being in the top 4 at the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship.
Coach Giustozzi shared: “In 2023, my players have made a lot of progress compared to 2022, both individually and collectively. I am looking for each player position, to have a team of the present and the future, confident in competing with opponents ranked above us. Therefore, I am extremely excited about the goals in 2024”.
Memorable trips abroad and farewells
Besides the innovation in national futsal tournaments and positive changes from the Vietnam futsal team, Vietnam futsal in 2023 had its own explosions or quiet moments. In September, the captain of the Vietnam futsal team, Tran Van Vu, decided to retire after 15 years of dedication to the country's futsal. A gratitude ceremony was held by VFF to express gratitude for the contributions of the player from Binh Phuoc. Through this, VFF also wants to convey the message that all contributions of the player will always be respected and honored.
By the end of December, player Nguyen Dac Huy, a member of the Vietnamese futsal team participating in the Futsal World Cup 2021, decided to hang up his boots to turn to a new direction in life.
Vietnam Futsal in 2023 also witnessed the reigning Silver Ball Khong Dinh Hung and goalkeeper Nguyen Hoang Anh of Sahako FC "going abroad" to compete in the Thai First Division Futsal League. Imane Futsal Center has sent invitations to the two Vietnamese players, with the hope that they will join this club to win the right to play in the highest level of futsal in the land of the golden pagoda.
HUU THANH
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