question mark for Cong Phuong's form
To prepare for the important match against Malaysia in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, coach Kim Sang-sik called up 23 players to the Vietnam national team.
The return of striker Nguyen Cong Phuong received attention after nearly 1.5 years of absence.
The current context brings both hope and pressure to Cong Phuong. The strikers of the Vietnamese team are currently facing personnel and performance problems.
Xuan Son will continue to be out until the end of 2025; Van Toan has a new knee injury and is expected to be out for 1 month; Bui Vi Hao also left open the possibility of participating in the SEA Games due to having to treat a ligament injury.
Meanwhile, Tien Linh and Tuan Hai - two of the strikers who are physically fit - have not maintained their goalscoring performance.
Tien Linh failed to score in 5 consecutive matches in the V.League, leading to poor performance of Binh Duong. Meanwhile, Tuan Hai, although scoring in the last 2 rounds, overall, he has only scored 5 goals in this season.
This is a good opportunity for Cong Phuong to assert himself, especially scoring points with coach Kim Sang-sik. The striker's strength lies in his decision-making ability.
In many difficult situations, Cong Phuong's decisiveness and impressive finishing skills helped the current Binh Phuoc team or the previous Vietnamese team score.
However, in another direction, Cong Phuong has not played as a center forward for a long time. In Binh Phuoc, he tends to play as an attacking midfielder.
In addition to the story of position, Cong Phuong's physical strength is something to consider. Many times in the First Division this year, the coaches had to take him out of the middle because he could not play the full match. Therefore, how coach Kim Sang-sik gave Cong Phuong a chance is still a question mark.
U22 Vietnam struggles to find a striker
The search for a striker is not only a problem for the Vietnam team. U22 Vietnam is also struggling to solve the same problem.
According to the regulations of host country Thailand, the 33rd SEA Games men's football is limited in age. Teams are only allowed to recruit players born in 2003 or later.
Invisibly, a difficult problem for U22 Vietnam was revealed. According to many experts, the generation of players from 2003-2005, who were the main competitors at the SEA Games, did not have a good center forward, despite having a surplus of promising central midfielders.
In the training session last March, head coach Dinh Hong Vinh summoned Nguyen Ha Anh Tuan of Ba Ria Vung Tau. Although he is over 1m80 tall, Anh Tuan does not meet the requirements for pressing and finishing ability.
Therefore, in this training session, Mr. Vinh continued to name overseas Vietnamese player Alex Bui. However, he is not the type of striker. His strengths in speed and dribbling ability trained in the Czech Republic help Alex Bui compete better as a winger.
Most likely, coach Dinh Hong Vinh will have to patch up with players who are not in good shape such as Viktor Le, Nguyen Quoc Viet, Nguyen Thanh Nhan or Nguyen Van Truong.
This story actually took place at the 2025 CFA Team China friendly tournament in March. In the 3 matches against Uzbekistan, Korea and China, the players on the rotation took on the role of "number 9" in U22 Vietnam. Maybe in the upcoming training period, Alex Bui will also be tested in this position.
Remember, at the 31st SEA Games when U22 Vietnam no longer had a striker like Duc Chinh or Tien Linh, Mr. Park Hang-seo also had a headache with the attack problem with the players of the 1999-2001 generation.
Finally, through the decision to select 3 players over 23 years old at the Congress at that time, he had to call up Tien Linh to participate in the tournament once more. However, at the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand at the end of this year, coach Kim Sang-sik will not have such a privilege anymore...
