New mindset of Vietnam team before AFF Cup

THE SHAPE OF TEACHER K IM

The Vietnamese team lost 3 of the first 4 matches under coach Kim Sang-sik. Analyzing each match, they were all understandable failures. Losing to Russia and Iraq was not a difficult result, while Thailand has always been a tough opponent in Southeast Asia, and the Vietnamese team in the peak period of coach Park Hang-seo only won 1 out of 7 encounters.

Tien Linh (left) and his teammates need to win the friendly matches in October to regain their morale.

A member of the Vietnamese team added: It is impossible to evaluate the national team's strength through the first matches of coach Kim Sang-sik, because he has not imparted any philosophy, but is only screening and testing the players. Mr. Kim wants to comprehensively evaluate Vietnamese football before "finalizing" the appropriate tactics for his students. The failures in the recent series of friendly matches also helped Quang Hai and his teammates understand the shortcomings in both playing style and desire to improve before the 2024 AFF Cup.

Losing a friendly match is not a big problem. The Vietnamese team had not won 10 consecutive "test matches" before winning the AFF Cup 2008. However, in the context of Mr. Kim and his team

Sang-sik is very close to the 2024 AFF Cup, consecutive failures can lead to the erosion of confidence and unpredictable psychological consequences. The Vietnamese team needs to step into the October friendly series with one arrow to kill two birds with one stone: achieve good results and present a coherent playing style.

Explaining the defeats to Russia and Thailand, coach Kim Sang-sik said that the players did not have the best physical strength and ball feel because they were in the pre-season preparation stage. The V-League has now started and will compete continuously until the FIFA Days series in October. The players are all "warmed up", ready for the reforms that the new captain is carrying out in the Vietnamese team.

After 4 months of research, Coach Kim Sang-sik needs to shape the playing style to answer the questions: ball control and attack or defensive counter-attack; trust the old generation or take risks with young players; where to focus the playing style...? With Southeast Asian opponents who are very familiar with each other's playing style, this is not the time to hide cards, but to "mold" specific ideas to plan the journey at the AFF Cup 2024. Hopefully, with new factors blooming after the first rounds of the V-League, plus the pillars who have regained their sense of playing football, the Korean coach will have a better quality team to start shaping.

IMPERATIVE TO WIN

In October, Vietnam's opponents India (ranked 126th in the world) and Lebanon (ranked 114th) are both at par. For example, India lost 0-3 to Vietnam in the Triumvirate friendly tournament in September 2022 and have just appointed a new coach. Being eliminated from a group with Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan is a "painful blow", showing that Indian football has been regressing since 2019. Lebanon has only won 2 of the last 10 matches and just lost to Malaysia in a friendly match in Kuala Lumpur in September.

Facing teams of equal strength, all of whom failed to pass the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, the Vietnamese team needs to win to regain confidence and untie an important psychological knot before the 2024 AFF Cup. Having lost 10 of the last 12 matches, every victory at this time has the value of relieving tension. At the same time, coach Kim Sang-sik and his students also need to win to improve their FIFA rankings and protect their position in the top seed group before the draw for the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Of course, balancing the dose between experimentation and bringing good results has never been easy, even for veteran coaches like Troussier or Park Hang-seo before. Coach Kim's problem is to shape a clear style and personality for his students.

As the 2024 AFF Cup approaches, the Vietnamese team needs a fresh spirit and style of play to ensure competitiveness with strong opponents like Indonesia or Thailand. The weariness of the past months needs to be shaken off if Mr. Kim really wants to find a foothold to rebuild the Vietnamese team after a long period of crisis.

The Vietnamese team will gather on October 5, before competing with India (October 9) and Lebanon (October 15) at Thien Truong Stadium. At this "fire pit", in 2023, Dang Van Lam and his teammates defeated Syria (1-0) and Palestine (2-0).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tam-the-moi-cua-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-truoc-aff-cup-185240924215309081.htm