VietNamNet Bridge - Football experts have disagreed with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on its reasons given for the national U-23 football team’s loss at the 26th SEA Games last week, and even accused the body of dodging its responsibilities.
It is unacceptable for the VFF to say the team lost due to insufficient time for German coach Falko Goetz to adjust to the team, according to coach Le Thuy Hai.

Hai noted that Swedish coach Stefan Hansson had only three weeks before the SEA Games to work with Myanmar’s successful team, while Goetz had over five months.

Myanmar displayed impressive progress, especially in the three encounters with Vietnam, under the leadership of coach Hansson. Myanmar initially lost 5-0 to Vietnam at the VFF Cup in October, but then held Vietnam to a goalless draw in the SEA Games group stage on November 5, and crushed Vietnam 4-1 in the competition’s playoff to win the bronze medal on November 21.

Football expert Tran Van Phuc added that coach Goetz couldn’t lay the blame on the players’ inability to adopt a playing style that emphasizes short and one-touch passes, while playing with long passes into the box for foreign players to head in a score on their club teams.

“No coach of a national team can interfere in the kind of football played by clubs in their leagues,” Phuc said to refute an excuse produced by the VFF that players were unable to adopt a new style of play different from what they are used to in clubs.

Le The Tho, the VFF’s former vice chairman and a member National Coaches’ Association, said a qualified national coach knows how to inherit the style of playing at club level to modify and develop it into his own at the national level.

Instead of recognizing the mistakes that lead to the loss at the SEA Games, VFF officials dodged their responsibilities by ignoring their mistakes and producing erroneous excuses for losses, concluded Tho.

The former chief editor of Bong Da (football) newspaper --the mouthpiece of the VFF—also refuted the VFF reasoning that players lost due to the high expectations of winning the title that were placed on them.

Every team deals with these types of expectations and knows how to handle it, Hai confirmed.

In conclusion, the coaches and football experts blamed the VFF for dodging their responsibilities for the loss and producing wrong-headed reasons at the meeting in Hanoi on November 28 to review the loss of Vietnam’s football team at the 26th SEA Games.

Tuoitre/VNE