Interestingly, the championship of stage 2 of SEA V.League 2026 also raises the question of who contributed to this victory? There is reason to commend Italian coach Federico Rampazzo, with a new breeze in tactical thinking, but we cannot ignore the role of his predecessor after many years of shaping and building the framework. In addition, there are also assessments affirming that the key factor is the maturity of the current generation of athletes.
That can become a topic of debate, but fragmenting achievements reveals a one-sided perception habit. Sports or any field, achievements rarely come from a single individual. So success is actually a timely combination of many factors. Coach Rampazzo can hardly create things if he receives back a poorly quality team. Conversely, if there are few details that he added from the world-renowned volleyball background, the old framework may still be stuck in the familiar limits.
The men's national football team was once an example, when coach Philippe Troussier suffered a bitter defeat not entirely because of outdated philosophy, but because he had to do reform work in the "generation gap" - when the young generation was not yet qualified, and naturalized factors such as Xuan Son, Hoang Hen or Tai Loc had not yet appeared. By the time of Kim Sang-sik, when personnel pieces and opportunities converged simultaneously, the sweet fruit bears fruit. One person came when there was a shortage of materials, the other reaped when everything was just ripe.
The "timely convergence" can bring titles, but it is also very easy to create the illusion that the foundation is solid. Being engrossed in public debate about who belongs, it is very likely to fall into a loop again, into memories once seen of when this generation of players/athletes passed, then everyone disappointedly returned to the starting line.
As people often say, no success comes in a day or two. Everything goes through a journey of searching, waiting, building, combining, editing and even opportunities. So the achievement is not just anyone's, cherish each piece, from the past to the present and the future too.
