Vietnam targets reaching the final of the SEA Games in Indonesia in November but experts think it requires a lot of work.
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| Raising the bar: Coach Henrique Calisto (third right) watches his players practise. Officials have set a target of getting to the final of the 27th Southeast Asian Games to be held in Indonesia later this year. — VNS Photo Quang Thang |
The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) set the goal at last week\'s meeting between the federation and the Portuguese coach in order to review the national team\'s failure at the Asean Football Federation Cup football championships last December.
"In 2011, the national team will only focus on World Cup 2014 qualification while the Olympic team will have a more challenging task – reaching the final at the SEA Games and having a run deep into the Olympic qualification," the VFF said on its website.
Pham Cong Loc, coach of Dong Thap, said that to achieve the goal coach Calisto needs to scout good replacements for some important positions left by goalkeeper Bui Tan Truong, midfielder Phan Thanh Hung, defender Vo Hoang Quang and some others.
Reaching the final is a feasible goal for under-23 team but the federation and coach will have to work hard to find quality replacements and help the team peak at the tournament if it does not want to repeat the misery at AFF Cup.
The federation needs to find assistants to help Calisto and find a common voice and harmonise interests of the nation and clubs to help young players have chances to hone their skills, experts said.
Tran Cong Minh, assistant coach at Dong Tam Long An, said what was worrying Calisto most at present is probably to find qualified replacements to fill holes left by many important positions.
"What compounds matters is that clubs in the V-League are using foreign players in many important positions while other positions were occupied by local senior players, so it is very difficult for under-23 players to have a regular place in the team," Minh, the national team\'s former assistant coach, said.
A handful of main players of the under-23 team such as goalie Truong, midfielder Hung and Nguyen Ngoc Dieu and defenders Quang and Tran Dinh Dong, who play in the final with Malaysia in Laos, will not be eligible because they are over 23.
It is fortunate that captain and Golden Ball 2009 winner Pham Thanh Luong is still eligible to go to Indonesia and the 23-year-old player will be the cornerstone for the Portuguese\'s campaign to win gold after already finishing as runners-up four times in previous competitions.
Another piece of good news to Calisto is that the U19 team captain Nguyen Van Quyet was playing the line-up of the V-League defending champion Hanoi T&T this season.
There are, however, some many ambitious teams out there to compete for two places in the final with Calisto and his players.
After making an early exit in Laos, the goal of Thailand in Palembang, the main revenue of the coming SEA Games, is definitely a place in the final while host nation Indonesia would not want to waste the home advantage to take the gold medal as well.
Besides Thailand and Indonesia, Malaysia will be a tough opponent for any teams after their recent run of success in the regional football.
Myanmar played quite well in the AFF Cup with a line-up of some under-23 players, certainly a warning to other teams.
Although Singapore is not so strong in young football, the team has begun to show progress, thanks to being exposed to the Singaporean football championship S-League.
Singaporean coach Raddy Avramovic said after a match against Malaysians: "From Safirul and Iggy (Ang), we saw a few good things. They are young players, from the generation of 1992, and in time, I hope the S-League can help them gain more match experience."
