Learning from our predecessors
Like the head coaches of the Vietnam National Team for more than a decade, Mr. Kim Sang-sik has concurrently held the position of both the U22 team and the national team. For that reason, right after the end of the 2024 ASEAN Cup, the Korean coach immediately started a new plan, including recruiting players for U22 Vietnam towards the 33rd SEA Games.
A detail that coach Kim Sang-sik learned from his predecessor Philippe Troussier was the decision to call up the U22 team in the same period as the Vietnam National Team during the FIFA Days. This is a good opportunity for teams to have the services of a large number of players without having to face the benefits of their home clubs. This test type was also applied by Mr. Kim in the September 2024 gathering.
In addition, calling up two teams at the same time helps the head coach to take advantage of resources in training. In addition to organizing internal matches, Mr. Troussier and Kim Sang-sik can now immediately choose to "go from the U22 team to the Vietnam national team". Of course, coach Kim Sang-sik did not follow the formula from his predecessor.
One of the big issues that has been mentioned many times in Mr. Troussier's gatherings is the appearance of two teams on the same field. With 40-50 players in a small space, Mr. Troussier and the actual assistant team did not have enough time to closely assess the abilities of each student.
This could also be the source of Mr. Troussier's failure after more than 1 year leading the Vietnam National Team. And of course, coach Kim Sang-sik did not want to go down the "road" from his predecessor.
Becoming a manager
Looking at the current reality of the National Team and U22 Vietnam, with the difference between two generations of age and age of the profession, Mr. Kim Sang-sik is in a relatively similar situation to his predecessor Toshiya Miura.
12 years ago, the Japanese strategist also "both ground and held him back" with the Vietnam National Team of the 1987 - 1991 generation, along with the U22 team of the 1993 - 1995 generation and later. Mr. Toshiya Miura decided to "run shows" when moving continuously from one stadium to another. However, the separation did not bring the expected results.
The person with the most feasible and successful plan in parallel training of the two Vietnam National Team is coach Park Hang-seo. Instead of directly directing like Mr. Miura or combining the two teams in the same field like the successor of Troussier, Mr. Park held a coaching session with nearly 14 people each evening before the training day.
This coach became the main manager, dividing the work to each assistant. Accordingly, Mr. Lee Young-jin - the powerful right hand of coach Park Hang-seo is responsible for managing the Vietnam team. Meanwhile, assistants Kim Han-yoon, Gong Oh-kyun... take turns coaching young players at different times.
At the end of each training session, the assistants will report the progress to coach Park Hang-seo. Based on the compiled data, combined with direct field observation, Mr. Park will continue to make requests for the next day to complete KPI for the two teams at the same time.
This model was also applied by coach Kim Sang-sik in the training session in September 2024. At that time, assistant Dinh Hong Vinh was assigned to lead U22 Vietnam to participate in a friendly tournament in China. Here, Mr. Vinh will continue to be trusted to be in charge of coaching the U22 team and new assistant Lee Jung-soo and Mr. Luu Danh Minh will closely follow the Vietnam team, under the direction of captain Kim Sang-sik.
Based on reports from assistant Dinh Hong Vinh, Mr. Kim Sang-sik will determine which young players have prospects to continue calling up for FIFA Days in 2025. Mr. Kim can even promote them to the national team to promote their development potential.
