In 2017, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan made history in Vietnamese football when he led the U.20 Vietnam team to the FIFA U.20 World Cup Finals. Mentioning it again shows that he is a truly capable person.

This time, when the Vietnamese team under coach Troussier failed, Vietnamese football was in a decline, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) decided to give the "seal" to coach Hoang Anh Tuan to lead U.23 Vietnam to conquer the 2024 U.23 Asian Cup in Qatar.

This is a challenge for the coach from Khanh Hoa because in this tournament, U.23 Vietnam led by coach Park Hang-seo reached the final match in Changzhou (China) 2018. To repeat this feat seems very difficult, especially in the hands of coach Hoang Anh Tuan, there is no generation of good players like Cong Phuong, Quang Hai, Bui Tien Dung, Van Thanh... like the time of coach Park Hang-seo.

However, Mr. Tuan also had an advantage because he was not under pressure. During the decline of Vietnamese football, the VFF did not assign any targets to coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team, meaning that they played well until the end, not focusing on reaching the quarter-finals or semi-finals. Being comfortable with the task, Mr. Tuan also boldly selected players in their teens and twenties to go to Qatar, not necessarily players around 22 or 23 years old. Therefore, U.23 Vietnam is the team with the youngest average age in the tournament.

Mr. Tuan is considered a coach with "an eye for talent", so although he chooses many young players, the players he chooses all have good qualities. Having followed Vietnamese youth football for many years, he knows the strengths and weaknesses of each player, so he chooses the right person to assemble into the strongest team.

The challenge for coach Hoang Anh Tuan will come tonight when U.23 Vietnam faces U.23 Kuwait. If he helps his team operate well and win, coach Hoang Anh Tuan will have the opportunity to take U.23 Vietnam through the group stage, because the next opponent will be U.23 Malaysia - a team that U.23 Vietnam has often had the advantage against in previous confrontations.

Helping U.23 Vietnam compete well and contribute to restoring the image of Vietnamese football in the international arena is also an opportunity for Mr. Tuan to further demonstrate his ability. In case VFF cannot recruit a foreign coach for the national team, then once he has proven his coaching ability in the U.23 Asian tournament, Mr. Tuan will have the opportunity to aim for the position of coach of the Vietnamese national team that he has always dreamed of.