How far has the Vietnam fusal team improved?
In the second FIFA Futsal World Cup, the Vietnam futsal team continued to reach the round of 16 and all stopped against Russia. The same achievements, but the Vietnam team in 2021 has made remarkable progress in terms of efficiency in playing style, fighting spirit and the impressions of the coaches.
At the 2016 World Cup, the Vietnamese team only scored 5 goals, scored by 2 players, but conceded 14 goals. The team has not been able to score any goals in 2 matches, losing 0-2 to Italy in the group stage and losing 0-7 to Russia in the round of 16. After 5 years, with 4 remaining players including Tran Van Vu, Le Quoc Nam, Pham Duc Hoa and Nguyen Minh Tri, the Vietnam futsal team has truly "transformed" in Lithuania.
The team has always scored in matches, with a total of 7 goals with 5 different strikers, conceding 15 goals. The goals of the Vietnamese team have a very clear tactical mark from set pieces, quick counter-attacks to attack launches from... goalkeepers. In the 2-3 loss to Russia, goalkeeper Ho Van Y passed the ball from his home field, allowing his teammate to assist Nguyen Dac Huy to score with a header.
Former Vietnam national team coach Miguel Rodrigo and a member of the FIFA Technical Research Group has praised his former students. "It was a great goal, completely great. Two headers connecting to a goal is something you never see in futsal," he shared.
Bruno Formoso, who is leading the Japanese futsal team and led the Vietnamese team to the 2016 World Cup, emphasized that the Vietnamese team is now stronger, has many better individuals as well as a more balanced and cohesive collective playing style. He believes that the results that the team has achieved are not a success but a long-term investment process, in the right direction.
Ivan Milovanov, a Russian player who faced Vietnam twice at the 2016 and 2021 World Cups, emphasized that the Vietnamese team had made great progress and caused the Russian team to worry for a moment in the last match. Meanwhile, coach Sergei Skorovich shared: "The Vietnam team plays disciplined and methodically in terms of tactics. They defended and fought really. Their goalkeeper had a good match, he saved the team a lot. And of course, the Vietnamese players showed their speed qualities, they really confused the Russian players with accelerations and playing with no balls".
In addition, through the 2021 World Cup, coach Pham Minh Giang has proven his talent. He showed that "grandfather" can take on big tasks if given the opportunity and trust. In addition to coach Pham Minh Giang, assistant Nguyen Tuan Anh - who directly directed the match against Russia also received many compliments for building a match with strict and disciplined tactics.
Challenges ahead
However, with the continuous development of futsal, not only the Vietnamese futsal team has improved. The Hungarian futsal team has reached the quarter-finals in its third participation in the World Cup, after being eliminated from the group stage twice in 2012 and 2016. Kazakhstan is considered a rising force as it "knocked" Thailand 7-0 to enter the quarter-finals.
In Asia, the Japanese futsal team is determined to improve the national team by naturalizing Brazilian players. Under the leadership of coach Miguel Rodrigo, they had a very good match against the Brazilian giants in the round of 16, before losing 2-4 in the lead.
In Asia, Iran is likely to maintain the No. 1 position for many new years because their platform is so good, with more than 16 million futsal players. Japan, Uzbekistan or Thailand are still superior to Vietnamese futsal in many aspects. Meanwhile, some other futsal teams have shown strong investment.
Most obviously, the Saudi Arabian futsal team. Recently, Saudi Arabia has appointed experienced coach Andreu Plaza to lead the national team, with the goal of attending the 2024 World Cup. Mr. Plaza has worked at Barcelona for more than 10 years as an assistant and head coach. He and his team have won the Champions League 3 times, the national championship 5 times, and the national cup 7 times. With his presence, the Saudi Arabian futsal team promises to transform.
In addition, Indian futsal also showed ambition with the bidding to host the 2024 World Cup... That shows that the Vietnamese team will face many challenges to win tickets to FIFA futsal 2024.
