In recent days, information has emerged that coach Kim Sang-sik will make changes in the personnel issue of the Vietnam U23 team participating in ASIAD 2026.
Previously, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) advocated sending the U21 team to participate in the tournament in Japan. Initially, this choice was highly appreciated, when the orientation and goal were for the long-term future. However, when faced with reality, adjustments needed to be made to adapt, leading to the Korean coach being able to add a few pillars of the U23 generation, even taking advantage of the number of overage personnel when the tournament regulations allow.
Not only football, life is also like that, when the roadmap is drawn as a straight line, but in reality it may force you to stop or turn to another path. Everyone draws, or is drawn, to give themselves a roadmap, from what to learn, what to do, what age to be stable, to what stage to achieve something.
If favorable, the plan and roadmap will match each other, but there are also many cases where at some point they realize that what they are pursuing is no longer suitable, or overwhelming, leading to turning sideways or needing to slow down. The impacting factors may include both objective and subjective factors. As with the U21 team, the views from the performance and results at the friendly tournament in China recently forced VFF and Kim Sang-sik to re-evaluate.
From this, it can also be seen that the bigger problem is that although learning from the way Japanese football has been doing for many years - sending younger generations to participate in over-the-board (mostly showing good performance and achievements) is a good direction, but we must also look back at the foundation and basis for implementation. Japan has done that because after many years, they have created a continuously operating system with very high player quality. Conversely, Vietnam's youth training system is still not stable and uneven, so the implementation of the "head-to-head" plan clearly needs adjustment. Adjustment in the way of integration depends on Mr. Kim Sang-sik's decision.
You too. Many things need a plan, but not to protect at all costs. If reality changes and the plan does not change, it is no longer persistent, but becomes conservative.
