The 2-0 victory over Palestine was Philippe Troussier’s third consecutive victory as head coach of the Vietnam national team. The French coach became the only coach to ever win all three of his first official matches in charge of the Vietnamese national team.

In 2014, when he first led the Vietnamese team, coach Toshiya Miura also had 3 consecutive victories. However, 2 of those matches were not official international friendlies between national teams. The most recent foreign coach, Mr. Park Hang Seo, debuted with a 0-0 draw with Afghanistan, but after that, the Korean coach and the Vietnamese team achieved many great successes.

Coach Troussier debuted with a 1-0 victory over the Hong Kong team (China) in June 2023. A few days later, the Vietnamese team defeated the Syrian team with the same score of 1-0. On September 11, Mr. Troussier and his students of the Palestine team won 2-0 at Thien Truong Stadium.

All three matches are official matches in the international competition schedule of the International Football Federation (FIFA). The victory helps the Vietnamese team gain more confidence when they are in the process of reshaping their playing style, while also ensuring a good position on the FIFA rankings.

Recently, Coach Troussier has mainly experimented with the squad and built a new way of playing football for the players. In the match against Palestine alone, Coach Troussier created conditions for a series of new players to compete such as Trieu Viet Hung, Pham Trung Hieu, Nguyen Dinh Trieu (Hai Phong Club), Pham Van Luan (Hanoi Police Club), Giap Tuan Duong (Hanoi Police Club).

In the previous matches, Nguyen Thai Son (Dong A Thanh Hoa Club) and Truong Tien Anh (Viettel Club) were both tested. Therefore, it is understandable that the Vietnamese team is not playing smoothly and lacks cohesion at this stage.

In addition, it is a good thing that players who have gone abroad but have not played much like Van Toan and Cong Phuong have shone. Cong Phuong scored the opening goal against the Palestine team. Van Toan had a pass to set up Tuan Hai to seal the 2-0 victory.

" My requirement is that the players must be more enthusiastic and make efforts on the field, especially when there is no ball. Currently in the V-League, some players playing in the striker position are also playing regularly. I give opportunities to Cong Phuong and Van Toan in this match, but both must understand that they need to find opportunities to compete fairly at the club level, to compete with players in the same position as them, " said coach Troussier.

Mai Phuong