U23 Vietnam: Coach Kim Sang Sik's unsolved problems

U23 Vietnam got a ticket to the semi-finals of U23 Southeast Asia 2025 quite easily, but the overall performance of coach Kim Sang Sik and his team was not really convincing, why?

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Coach Kim Sang Sik brought to the U23 Southeast Asian tournament a squad considered a miniature "Vietnam team" with a series of players such as Thai Son, Van Khang, Dinh Bac, Trung Kien, Ly Duc...

Besides, most of the remaining faces have already been 'main actors' in V-League, or First Division. Therefore, in addition to being considered the biggest candidate for the championship, fans also expect convincing victories from U23 Vietnam.

U23 Vietnam won a ticket to the semi-finals, but their performance was not convincing. Photo: Huu Ha

However, the reality on the field was not as expected. In both matches, U23 Vietnam completely controlled the game, held the ball a lot, and pressured the opponent, but the efficiency was very low and had to rely heavily on goals from set pieces.

Obviously, even though the opponent was of a lower level, U23 Vietnam failed to demonstrate its position as a superior team with a truly convincing playing style.

What is the reason?

The biggest problem of U23 Vietnam at the moment seems to be the effectiveness of their finishing, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, the "hidden iceberg" lies in the organization, namely the midfield.

Possessing many skilled, experienced players with the ability to hold the ball, U23 Vietnam still lacks innovation and creativity. The ball deployment pace is slow, lacks creativity and breakthrough passes almost do not appear in the team's game. This makes the attacks of coach Kim Sang Sik's students easy for the opponent to predict and neutralize.

And the problem lies in the midfield. Photo: Huu Ha

Besides, U23 Vietnam's playing style is also quite monotonous, mainly relying on situations of going down the sidelines and crossing the ball (but often making mistakes) or waiting for individuals to shine in set pieces.

With the playing style, the limited creativity in midfield is also part of the reason why the U23 Vietnam strikers have not shown the highest accuracy in finishing, because most of the shots are situational solutions instead of being created real opportunities.

From what we can see, if coach Kim Sang Sik does not soon find a solution to the problem of creativity in the midfield and the effectiveness of the attack, the upcoming journey of U23 Vietnam is predicted to be very difficult if they want to win the championship for the third consecutive time.

Watch the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Football Championship live and in full on FPT Play, visit http://fptplay.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/u23-viet-nam-nhung-bai-toan-hlv-kim-sang-sik-chua-co-loi-giai-2425124.html