Coach Kim Sang-sik's arduous journey

RAISING THE TEAM

Winning the 2024 AFF Cup right on Thai soil after defeating our arch-rivals in both matches is clearly a glorious achievement for Vietnamese football. That achievement not only helps us overcome our fear of the Thais but also helps the entire football scene regain confidence to continue moving forward. Overall, success in the AFF Cup is a reasonable result of an entire campaign when the Vietnamese team has fully exploited its potential and strength at the present time, plus the opponents did not field their strongest squad.

The fierce battles in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers will be another challenge, where teams will field their best players. For example, Malaysia, the biggest rival to compete for the only ticket in Group F (Vietnam is in the same group with Malaysia, Laos and Nepal) is also preparing for a massive naturalization campaign to strengthen its force to compete with us. The successful naturalization lesson (somewhat) of the Indonesian team or most recently the case of Xuan Son is an inspiration for countries in the region to follow.

The opponents are getting stronger, while we will lose Xuan Son throughout 2025. Xuan Son's contributions to the AFF Cup 2024 are extremely clear, even many experts believe that without Xuan Son, we may not have been champions. Therefore, the problem of upgrading the team will become extremely difficult for coach Kim and the coaching staff. The best players with the best form have appeared and shone at the AFF Cup. The upcoming journey is also missing Ho Tan Tai, who just had surgery. This has made coach Kim decide to end his vacation early to take advantage of the time to watch the matches in the V-League, check the players' performance and find new faces for the team.

The Vietnamese team's success at the AFF Cup will give it more motivation to conquer greater heights.

It is very difficult to find new faces, but with the lessons learned from the AFF Cup 2024, Coach Kim Sang-sik has also determined the framework and type of players he needs for each position as well as backup plans. Along with that, we still hope that quality foreign players who are qualified to be naturalized such as Hendrio ( Nam Dinh ) or Geovane (Ha Tinh) will be the perfect additions, when Xuan Son is still absent.

SAND FINDING GOLD FOR U.22 VN

If at the national team level, Coach Kim Sang-sik is looking for factors and methods to improve the level, then with the U.22 team, he and his colleagues still have a lot of work to do. The U.22 Vietnam team is entering a period of force transfer, but the appropriate age group (born in 2003 or later) is too weak and too lacking. Coach Kim will have to have a headache calculating to train and prepare the framework for the U.22 at the 33rd SEA Games at the end of the year.

Coach Kim Sang-sik currently has many options for the U.22 Vietnam attack line.

During the preparation for the AFF Cup 2024, young players with the potential to become the core of the SEA Games squad were also gathered and trained with the team, such as goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien, midfielder Khuat Van Khang, Nguyen Van Truong, Nguyen Thai Son, striker Nguyen Dinh Bac, Nguyen Quoc Viet, Bui Vi Hao. Among these players, there were players who had quite good performances in the regional playground such as Van Khang, Vi Hao. But clearly those factors are not enough when the journey to win the 33rd SEA Games gold medal will be extremely difficult. Because Southeast Asian countries are also investing heavily in youth training and the next generation.

Therefore, in addition to "panning for gold" in the V-League, the Vietnam Football Federation and coach Kim Sang-sik are also aiming to take advantage of resources from overseas Vietnamese players. Names like Zan Nguyen (Ho Chi Minh City Club is actively completing the naturalization application for this 1.9 m tall player), Aymeric Faurand-Tournaire, Viktor Le and Andrej Nguyen can absolutely play for U.22 Vietnam at SEA Games 2025. According to the plan, in order to support coach Kim Sang-sik to have the best preparation for the two tasks at the Asian Cup and SEA Games 33, the U.22 Vietnam team will be given the opportunity to gather and train with the national team during FIFA Days.

Fans hope that, having built a foundation with initial success, the Vietnamese football teams will continue to promote their strengths, refine and correct shortcomings to become more and more perfect, strong enough to conquer the difficult challenges of 2025.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hanh-trinh-van-gian-nan-cua-hlv-kim-sang-sik-185250203210031649.htm