The Vietnamese team is aiming for this year’s Southeast Asian Championship with the goal of “reaching the finals” set for coach Kim Sang-sik. Based on the current situation, from both a subjective and objective perspective, this is not an easy task for the Korean coach.
Subjectively, the Vietnamese team itself is not stable, when Mr. Kim Sang-sik has not built and shaped both personnel and playing style. From an objective perspective, the opponents are strong enough and have made remarkable progress, especially Indonesia - in the same group as the Vietnamese team, with a naturalization strategy.
However, while a difficult prospect is drawn for VFF and coach Kim Sang-sik to prepare a long training plan in Korea, the two opponents, Thailand and Indonesia, soon have personnel orientation for the tournament.
The ASEAN Championship is not part of the FIFA calendar, so clubs are not required to release players. That means Indonesia and Thailand cannot use key players who are playing abroad. However, they are not passive in terms of personnel.
Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong will use a squad consisting of players playing domestically, while his Thai counterpart Masatada Ishii will soon determine the squad for the FIFA Days this November - with many new players, which will be the squad for the ASEAN Championship.
Not having the opponent's strongest squad is somewhat good news, but it is also worth remembering that, with a young squad and many new players, the Thai team once beat the Vietnamese team right at My Dinh Stadium during FIFA Days in September.
So, to put the question in reverse, what does Mr. Kim Sang-sik have now? He still has to look for personnel and is faced with the choice of a famous star cast but with unstable performance or a new factor with good performance but lacking international experience.
Regardless of the lineup, it is imperative that the Vietnamese team plays well and gets good results. If they cannot win against opponents who are not in their best condition, of course, that is the next confirmation of the problem of Vietnamese football at this stage.
