Improving the quality of U.23 Vietnam

U.23 Vietnam has successfully completed 2/3 of the important tasks of 2025 with the U.23 Southeast Asian Championship and won a ticket to Asia with the top position in the qualifying round. The great goal that U.23 Vietnam needs to conquer is the 33rd SEA Games gold medal, an important stepping stone towards a leap forward at the U.23 Asian Finals in January 2026.

THE FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS

Two years ago, U.23 Vietnam was expected to win big under the guidance of the famous coach Troussier. But the French coach's half-hearted ball control style of play was a huge failure. Taking over the hot seat of the Vietnam national team and U.23 with many pressures and difficulties, but with his courage and simple decisions, coach Kim Sang-sik has gradually led Vietnamese football to overcome the crisis and begin to reap success.

Coach Kim Sang-sik and U.23 Vietnam are on the right track

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

The 2024 AFF Cup championship is a valuable lesson in the way coach Kim chooses people and manages personnel, where the coaching staff finds a playing style that suits the physical condition and maximizes the confidence and bravery of the players. In terms of expertise, the fast, simple and effective defensive counter-attacking style of play has brought out the best of the Vietnamese players' abilities. A solid defense and Xuan Son's fierce attack are special highlights in the Southeast Asian championship. Along with that, the young players have gradually become familiar with Mr. Kim's way of working, strategy and playing philosophy, so that now U.23 Vietnam has become a team with a relatively clear and effective playing style and tactical operation with impressive results.

N FINAL FINISHING STEPS

Despite steady progress, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team still have a lot of work to do to win the 33rd SEA Games gold medal and achieve good results at the 2026 AFC U23 Championship. Firstly, in terms of personnel, U23 Vietnam still has to increase both quantity and quality. U23 Vietnam has just had a training trip and friendly match that is considered to be of very high quality in Qatar, but if analyzed carefully, the young players in the hands of Mr. Kim are still quite thin, there is still a large gap between the regular players and the reserve players. In the unfortunate case of injury or some incident of the key players, it is very difficult for the coaching staff to find personnel who can replace them perfectly.

However, Mr. Kim and his colleagues can still expand the "data" to search for excellent players from the V-League and the first division. The factors that are regularly playing in the V-League will be a source of quality personnel. The progress of the Duc Phu - Quoc Cuong duo of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Club is a good suggestion for the U.23 Vietnam coaching staff. If both are called, this will be a quality addition to the U.23 Vietnam midfield. Thanh Nhan with his great goals in the V-League will clearly be a compensation for the shortcomings of Dinh Bac or Quoc Viet.

In addition, focusing on perfecting the playing style will also be the ultimate task of coach Kim Sang-sik. In the recent past, U.23 Vietnam has built a defense with good qualities such as effectively preventing high balls, 1v1 disputes, or more rhythmic and precise support. Keeping a clean sheet in the U.23 Asia qualifiers or only conceding 2 goals in the campaign to win the U.23 Southeast Asia title are clear evidence of the solidity of goalkeeper Trung Kien and his teammates. The problem of U.23 Vietnam at present is to improve ball control, practice more carefully the attacking situations with open ball phases. U.23 Vietnam must aim for a faster ball circulation style, less sudden combinations and higher attack speed. That can help U.23 improve, improve quality and break the structure of teams with tight defenses.

Along with that, coach Kim will have to continue to train his students in set pieces, precise crosses from both sides, the styles that have become the trademark of U.23 in recent times. There is not much time left to prepare, but there is one problem that we can easily see: U.23 Vietnam is on the right track. As long as they continue to work hard to improve and improve the team's ability, the goal of winning back the SEA Games gold medal will be within reach of coach Kim Sang-sik and his students.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nang-chat-u23-viet-nam-18525102720213577.htm