The 47-year-old coach started his job with the Vietnam National Team with a 3-2 win over the Philippines National Team in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June. It was tough but still a decent starting point.
Six months later, the two teams met again, and the determined Korean coach commented: “In June, we only had one month to prepare. At that time, it was really not easy to synthesize information and help improve the team. But now, we have all the elements, more time.”
He wanted to win, was determined to win and, of course, had faith in victory. However, it seemed that at the decisive moment, there was a slight psychological impact, leading to a change in the mindset and attitude of the Vietnamese team. That was the fact that the Philippine team only had 2 points after 2 matches with Myanmar and Laos, 2 opponents that were rated lower.
On the contrary, in addition to the victory over Laos, the Vietnamese team also defeated the Indonesian team to earn 6 full points. The door to the semi-finals is wide open, but not yet official, so they still need to exert all their strength to complete the first task. However, it was not until the 90+7 minute that the Vietnamese team escaped defeat against the Philippines with a rather lucky goal by Ngoc Tan...
What did Mr. Kim Sang-sik do? He changed 8 positions in the starting lineup compared to the victory over Indonesia, including the striker position. More or less, it was a form of underestimating the opponent. In reality, the 15 shots of the Vietnam team were almost virtual, with only 4 on target (2 shots in each half).
It was not until this match that experts and fans realized the deadlock in the team's playing style and questioned the philosophy that Mr. Kim wanted to build. The artificial turf was not the main reason for the team's difficulties, but the mentality of entering the game, the attitude of reacting to the opponent's performance led to the (next) unconvincing performance.
Of course, the chance of reaching the semi-finals is still high - as Mr. Kim Sang-sik said, but thinking about the semi-finals early to rotate the squad when the group stage task is not yet finished, keeping 1 point is still a lucky enough lesson for Mr. Park Hang-seo's compatriot.
The mindset and attitude of a championship candidate must be different. Unless the position is virtual, when the real strength is only that!
