On Feb 8, Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets Park Hang-seo, head coach of the National Football Team, a week after the Vietnamese team made a comfortable win 3-1 over China in Hanoi.
| Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and Park Hang-seo, head coach of the National Football Team, in Hanoi on Feb 8. Photo: VNA |
The President praised the stunning win that the coach’s players made. It was also the first-ever triumph over China after the seven-game losing streak.
He emphasized that the team’s achievements over the past time have been largely contributed by the coach – the South Korean tactician. He noted that each win in sports has helped lifted Vietnam’s image on the international agendas.
At the meeting, President Phuc affirmed that Vietnam would continue paying attention to the development of football by making proper policies and having long-term strategies.
On this occasion, he asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to have worthy rewards for the coaches and players. He highly appreciated the government for intensified investments into football and facilitating the participation of tournaments and broadcast big games.
Park Hang-seo said the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and coaches will focus on training young players to ensure the development of local football by attending the World Cup 2026 is the target.
In 2022, Vietnam will continue two last matches in the World Cup 2022 – third round, attend AFF Cup, Southeast Asia U23, and SEA Games 31 (to be held in mid-2022 in Vietnam).
| Park Hang-seo and his players crown AFF Suzuki Cup in 2018. Photo: VNA |
The Vietnamese team, under the coach of Park Hang-seo since 2017, has been the runner-up of the AFC Asian Cup U23 2018 in January 2018 (for the first time); the 4th at the 18th Asian Games (ASIAD) in August 2018 (for 1st time); champions of the AFF Suzuki Cup in December 2018 (after 10 years); entering the qualifiers at the AFC Asian Cup in January 2019 (for first time); gold medal at the 30th SEA Games in November-December 2019 (after 43 years); advancing to the third round (final round) of the 2022 World Cup, the only Southeast Asian candidate (for first time).
With the win over China at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on Feb 1, Vietnam become the first Southeast Asian team won at the final round of the World Cup in 2002.
“Qualifying for the World Cup from a group consisting of continental heavyweights such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Australia was always going to be bridge too far, but failure to pick up a point in their first seven matches of the third round of Asian qualifiers -- even against the likes of Oman and China -- did cause some eyebrows to be raised,” Gabrial Tan of ESPN commented after Vietnamese team made a convincing 3-1 win over China last week.
| Nguyen Tien Linh (22) and Ho Tan Tai (13) bag two scores for Vietnam at the match against China on Feb 1. Photos: Ngoc Tu/ The Hanoi Times |
