Vietnam head coach Park Hang-seo speaks at the press conference.

There will be four major fronts for the Vietnamese squads in 2021, including the AFF Cup, the World Cup qualifiers, the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, and the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

“This year, we should have played three games in the World Cup qualifiers, comprising two away matches against Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, and one at home against Indonesia. As for the U22 team, we will compete in the AFC U23 qualification and the SEA Games arena. The schedule is indeed very tight.”

“With the national team, it is true that Vietnam has never been through to the final World Cup qualifying round. So, I want to focus all my energy on this front. I also consider it the most important goal. If we progress, we will have even more matches in late 2021. In addition, as we all know, the AFF Cup is scheduled to be held in April 2021. Vietnam are the defending title holders, so we need to play with mentality of the champions,” Park told reporters.

“Vietnam U22s will compete in both the SEA Games and the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers next year. With such an array of tournaments, there will inevitably be overlaps in the time fund and work. However, I believe that if we go step by step and strive as much as we did in the past, we can definitely achieve everything. I will try my best to help Vietnam attain the expected results on all four fronts,” he said.

The Korean tactician expressed his concern about the fitness of the players as they must observe a tight schedule at the national team level as well as play for their clubs in the V.League.

“We have so many successive tournaments. I hope the Vietnam Football Federation and the Vietnam Professional Football Company will make proper adjustments to the schedule to further support the national squad,” Park stated.

“If possible, I wish to gather the national team for a period immediately after the 2020 V.League concludes so that we may organise the player position diagram and prepare personnel for the World Cup and AFF Cup missions,” he said.

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Source: NDO