Coach Kim Sang-sik 'escapes pressing' extremely smoothly when faced with difficult questions, fully defending U.23 Vietnam

The captain of the Vietnam U.23 team did not care that 2 out of 3 goals came from set pieces. The important thing is that he and his players won.

"We have balance"

On the evening of July 19, the U.23 Vietnam team won 3-0 against Laos in the opening match of the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 Championship thanks to goals from Khuat Van Khang and Nguyen Hieu Minh (double). In the press conference after the match, coach Kim Sang-sik shared: "I am very happy to have won 3-0 in the first match. I would like to thank the Vietnamese fans who came to the stadium to cheer for the team as well as the fans who watched on the small screen. The U.23 Laos team defended tightly from the first minutes. After that, we scored a goal thanks to the efforts of the players. The important thing is that we had a balance in defense, attack and won."

Coach Kim Sang-sik and Hieu Minh (Man of the Match) were very happy after the 3-0 victory. Nguyen Hieu Minh - the author of the double goal against U.23 Laos, shared: "I am very happy to have scored two goals, that gives me more motivation to try harder in the next matches. Thank you to the fans who have always followed and supported the team."

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

Hieu Minh makes an impression

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

Meanwhile, center back Nguyen Hieu Minh shared: "I want to thank all the fans who cheered for the U.23 Vietnam team. I am very happy to score 2 goals. This will be the motivation for me to play better in the next matches.

U.23 Vietnam beat U.23 Laos, coach Kim Sang-sik cleverly avoided difficult questions

Indonesian reporters 'attack' continuously, coach Kim Sang-sik defends firmly

An Indonesian reporter asked: "2 out of 3 goals came from defenders, not strikers, what do you think about this?" Coach Kim Sang-sik smiled and simply replied: "I'm very happy, whoever scored. Congratulations to Xiaoming for scoring 2 goals."

After that, Indonesian reporters continued to ask questions related to the home team such as "assess the strength of the U.23 Indonesia team", "Is U.23 Indonesia a championship candidate?", "Do you want to meet U.23 Indonesia or Malaysia in the semi-finals?".

However, coach Kim Sang-sik answered cleverly: "The Indonesian U.23 team is very strong and well organized. But I haven't thought much about the opponents. We have only played one match and need to focus on each match. We need to focus on ourselves, need to play as we have practiced, as planned. That is the important thing."

In the second round, the U.23 Vietnam team will face the U.23 Cambodia team at 8:00 p.m. on July 22 at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Watch the full 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 Football Championship Mandiri Cup™ on FPT Play, visit http://fptplay.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hlv-kim-sang-sik-thoat-pressing-cuc-muot-truoc-cau-hoi-kho-het-muc-bao-ve-u23-viet-nam-185250719194344933.htm