It was noted that fans had been “lining up” (with chairs or other objects) in front of the gate of Phu Tho Provincial Sports Stadium since the evening of December 23. There would be nothing special if the match of the Vietnam National Team took place 1 or 2 days later, but interestingly, this happened when coach Kim Sang-sik and his team had just left for Kallang (Singapore) to prepare for the first leg of the ASEAN Championship 2024 semi-finals.
Meanwhile, the return match will take place on December 29. That means fans have reserved tickets to watch the match of the “Golden Star Warriors” live… 5 days in advance. With all the tickets sold online being sold out just over an hour after going on sale, what does that say? Has the love for the team been rekindled or is it just a virtual fever? Is this excitement a risk?
The excitement is when the first leg result is not yet known. Here, let's just say that the team returns with a bad result, what will the fans' state be like? Will the excitement quickly cool down?
Ignoring the story that a part of the long row of seats were arranged with the intention of sending the tickets to the black market, perhaps we should also thank Nguyen Xuan Son for his impressive debut last weekend to create a fever. Because, just in the previous matches at this ASEAN Championship, even if they won, Quang Hai and his teammates did not show convincing results.
Let’s hope that the 5-0 victory over Myanmar will be a real turning point for the team to get back on track instead of just a temporary explosion. To do so, in addition to the responsibility placed on Xuan Son’s shoulders, Vietnamese football still has a lot of work to do, as lessons from the past show that football needs to create a path, a sustainable journey instead of continuing to wait for a certain period to see the appearance of a quality star squad or a star, a prominent factor…
Then there is no need to worry about virtual fever or not.
