U17 Vietnam played hard in all 3 matches. Photo: VFF . |
If only Tran Gia Bao had not committed the foul that led to the dangerous free kick. If only U17 Vietnam had taken better advantage of the counter-attacks in the second half. If only in the final minutes, Cristiano Roland's students had not conceded the game...
Seriously, the journey of U17 Vietnam is a collection of borrowing and repaying. We borrowed luck, when U17 Australia hit Hoa Xuan Tin's goalpost 3 times in the opening match, when U17 Japan created dozens of opportunities but failed to take advantage of them in the second match. Then, U17 Vietnam had to pay back what they received in the harshest way.
That’s football. There’s no “if”, and not every close match means you’re ready to reach it. Vietnam U17s have put in a great effort in a difficult group, and although the World Cup dream has slipped away, the journey Roland and his players have gone through has not been in vain.
Le Huy Viet Anh and his teammates were able to come and experience the bitterness, to realize that top-level football is always harsh. That was a stumble that coach Roland affirmed from the beginning of the journey, "not everything you want can be achieved". U17 Vietnam needs these experiences to become tougher and stronger.
The commendable point of U17 Vietnam is their disciplined and tight playing style. Illustration: Bao Ngoc. |
Commendable effort
Vietnam U17 became the most special team in the 2025 AFC U17 Championship, when they were eliminated despite not losing any match. The undefeated teams all advanced, except for coach Roland and his team. Because we did not lose, but also… did not win. Meanwhile, all 3 opponents in the same group had lost, but also won 1 match. That was enough!
There was a heated debate in world football about how many points should be counted for a draw. Previously, each draw was counted as 2 points. Now it is only 1 point. That is, 3 draws are equal to 1 win.
Why? A draw is always much easier than a win. Two teams always enter the match tied, with one point in hand. To draw, you just have to play to “maintain”. But to win, you have to play to “win”. The value of a win is much greater than a draw.
The gap between losing and drawing is usually short, while the gap between drawing and winning is long. Because it requires determination, desire, the ability to organize the game on a collective level, as well as strength, speed and dexterity on an individual level. Weak teams always want to draw, but if they want to become strong teams, they must win.
After a year of taking over the team that drew with Cambodia and lost to Indonesia, Coach Roland changed everything. He set a framework of tactical discipline. The players can still play freely, but must be within a certain "frame".
The team's formation is more reasonable and scientific . The defense is more tightly organized and tight. Confidence is also increased, when the players understand that they are being trained by a good teacher, and if they meet the tactics, the results will come.
Indeed, U17 Vietnam has transformed day by day. Starting with victories over U17 Uzbekistan (3-0) and U17 Japan (1-0) in a friendly tournament, U17 Vietnam then qualified for the qualifying round, then defeated U17 Oman twice with the same score of 1-0 in the warm-up matches.
Entering the group of death, perhaps few people thought that U17 Vietnam would draw with U17 Australia and U17 Japan, and then in the match against U17 UAE, if we win, we will continue.
However, U17 Vietnam was eliminated, because we were “enough” to create a surprise, but “lack” of a real victory. Or to put it more bluntly, U17 Vietnam is capable of drawing with any opponent, no matter how strong. The young players have gone through the journey from defeat to draw. But the remaining journey from draw to victory is different. It is longer, more arduous, and the pure effort of coach Roland and his players is not enough.
The players tried their best and fought to the point of exhaustion, but the difference that separates U17 Vietnam from their opponents in the same group is not only in the effort on the field but also in the effort of the entire football industry , which for a long time has been more talk than action.
Mr. Roland is a new discovery in the Vietnamese youth football coaching community. Photo: Bao Ngoc. |
Root problem
“The Vietnamese U17 players have very few playgrounds to show themselves,” Coach Roland confided, when his players had a controversial 1-1 draw with U17 Yemen in the 2025 U17 Asian qualifiers.
Coach Roland did the best he could control. That was to take the U17 Vietnam team to the Asian playground to learn more, whether they won, drew or lost. However, there was still something that the Brazilian coach could only talk about, but could not change: that was the immature and weak youth football system in Vietnam.
A place where only a few teams have quality youth training facilities, and very few teams have strategies for developing young players such as creating opportunities to play and develop skills. A place where each year, players only have about 10-15 matches to play in youth tournaments (while in developed football, young players play at least 25-30 matches per year, and those are all quality matches). A place where the youth team only trains a few weeks before the tournament to assemble the squad.
Reasonable tactics can narrow the gap in level between youth teams, but that is not enough. The root of the foundation still belongs to training and coaching, which Coach Roland can only solve on the surface, while the hidden responsibility lies with the football foundation, which has long been overlooked.
Le Huy Viet Anh, Tran Gia Bao, Dau Hong Phong, Hoang Trong Duy Khang, Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc all have great potential. However, Vietnamese football does not lack such "young shoots".
Many rough diamonds have appeared, but because of no opportunity, no tournament to show off, no proper training or coaching strategy, most of them have fallen into oblivion. Those who have made an effort can still stay in V.League or First Division, those who are less fortunate choose to retire and pursue other careers. A few hundred players playing in V.League and First Division are just a few of the output products of thousands of players from training centers across the country.
After all, winning against U17 UAE to qualify for the World Cup or being eliminated, those two extremes are just temporary, a small milestone in the very long career journey of the players. People cannot look at the milestone to evaluate the whole journey.
There are generations of players who do not need to attend the World Cup, but will still make important contributions to Vietnamese football in the future. The important thing is how Vietnamese football will cherish these “rough gems”, and whether it can find good teachers like Roland to create good students as people often say “the title of the best students” or not.
How many more youth tournaments, how many more matches, or how many more opportunities for U17 Vietnam and many other young teams to rise up, so that next time we return, we can exchange the draws for even just one victory. So that the gap between a draw and a victory is no longer so far away.
And now, let's give some encouragement to U17 Vietnam. In the context of Vietnamese football, playing like coach Roland and his team is already very good.
Source: https://znews.vn/dung-chi-khen-dong-vien-u17-viet-nam-post1545051.html
Comment (0)