Vietnam U.23 Team: Mr. Kim Sang-sik's 'brave as a tiger' philosophy

With an inexperienced squad but full of fighting spirit, coach Kim Sang-sik has enough ingredients to create a brave U.23 Vietnam team.

Coach Kim INTEGRATED WITH U.23 Vietnam

Although he has been in charge of Vietnam for a full year, it was only until now that Coach Kim Sang-sik actually coached U.23 Vietnam. During the short training session in August 2024, he only had 5 days to get to know his students. Everything stopped at greetings with some physical exercises and team distances, where Mr. Kim continuously encouraged his students to freely show off everything they have.

U.23 Vietnam practices with passion

Photo: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

It was not until June 26 that the training schedule of U.23 Vietnam officially started to prepare for the U.23 Southeast Asian Championship 2025. This is the youth football tournament that Vietnam won in 2022 and 2023. However, for Mr. Kim personally, the first tournament is always very important, because a good start leads to a good end, whether in the national team or U.23 Vietnam. Especially when U.23 Vietnam is the foundation generation to build the next future for the Vietnamese team, which is being doubted in the context of opponents like Indonesia or Malaysia continuously naturalizing players.

Although coach Kim's coaching effectiveness with U.23 Vietnam needs to be verified in the next 6 months, with consecutive tournaments such as U.23 Southeast Asia 2025, U.23 Asia 2026 qualifiers or SEA Games 33, we can believe that the Korean coach's coaching philosophy and approach will give him the foundation for success.

First of all, coach Kim Sang-sik is a psychological warfare expert. He has been successful with a team full of stars and personalities like Jeonbuk (2021 K-League champion and 2022 Korean FA Cup champion), or healed the rift under his predecessor in the Vietnamese national team to create a team that won every battle, convincingly winning the 2024 AFF Cup. The teams under the 1976-born strategist are always united, play fiercely and often come back in the second half thanks to their fighting spirit.

Responding to Thanh Nien , Coach Kim Sang-sik summarized the philosophy he wants to apply to the national team and U.23 Vietnam with the word "tiger", because "must be more fierce, must be brave like a tiger to make students respect him". Coach Kim shared that he wants to be disciplined and strict on the field to discipline his students, but in real life he will listen to his students' thoughts, be close and share like an older brother to help them overcome difficulties. That is the path "tiger general" Kim Sang-sik is taking with U.23 Vietnam. Striker Nguyen Thanh Nhan revealed: "Coach Kim is a cheerful person in life and training, encouraging players to play football with passion, joy, to make it as comfortable as possible".

However, the training sessions of U.23 Vietnam are always at a high level of competition. Mr. Kim called up 36 players, which means 13 faces will be eliminated to finalize the official list. The Korean coach wants to create pressure for his students to make efforts. If they do not meet the strict standards, do not expect to participate in the U.23 Southeast Asia tournament. The list is only finalized on the last day, requiring U.23 Vietnam to exert all their strength to compete every day.

HIGH COMBAT

Just like the Vietnamese team, coach Kim Sang-sik will build a foundation of bravery, turning the U.23 Vietnam team into a fiery, highly combative team. "The players must play more aggressively, because I find that they are sometimes too gentle. We must be stronger for the sake of the flag and the shirt," Mr. Kim once confided to Thanh Nien .

But coach Kim does not just simply call out and encourage. Players will only be steadfast if they have the right philosophy and tactics to follow. "That is what a coach needs to do to build confidence in his students. For players to be determined, they need to clearly know the team's direction and believe in it," commented commentator Vu Quang Huy.

Besides imposing high standards, Mr. Kim is gradually building the framework for U.23 Vietnam. The 3-5-2 formation with 3 central midfielders and 2 strikers will play the role of the ball deployment axis, the active attacking style with high intensity, lightning-fast and direct attacks to approach the opponent's goal as quickly as possible... is the operating system that U.23 Vietnam is following. The playing style is available, but the players are still unknown.

Mr. Kim does not favor anyone. Any player who meets his playing style will be selected, just like the selection process in the Vietnam national team. The spirit of fierce competition will help the U.23 Vietnam team become a stronger team.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/doi-u23-viet-nam-triet-ly-dung-manh-nhu-ho-cua-ong-kim-sang-sik-185250704215854866.htm