Coach Hoang Van Phuc: 'U19 Vietnam has a good springboard for the future'

Coach Hoang Van Phuc thinks that the primary duty and greatest burden of youth football and young national teams lies in producing excellent players for the national squads to serve important goals.

Coach Hoang Van Phuc stated: "The U19 Vietnam team has had a favorable start at this year's tournament. However, challenges lie ahead. The level of difficulty will be raised to its highest in the final match when U19 Vietnam faces host and defending champion Indonesia. The team from the archipelago possesses formidable strength, especially with the added quality of several Dutch-origin players in their lineup. The young Indonesian players always fully exploit home advantage to create intense pressure."

"Although the psychological and tactical pressure is immense, high-quality matches provide immeasurable practical value. Clashing with the region's strongest opponents is a golden opportunity for young players to accumulate match experience and grow significantly."

Coach Hoang Van Phuc said that for youth football, it's not just about results but also about paving the way forward: "Beyond the matter of achievements, many young Vietnamese players now have more chances to compete in regional and international arenas. I believe this is an important stepping stone for Vietnam's youth football to aim for greater goals in the future."

First, the experiences at the 2026 Southeast Asian Championship will serve as crucial preparation for U19 Vietnam to pursue the farther objective of the 2027 AFC U20 qualifiers. The U19 Southeast Asian tournament acts as a vital test before U19 Vietnam enters the 2027 AFC U20 qualifiers, where opponents in the same group—such as Iran, North Korea, and Palestine—will certainly present much bigger challenges. Therefore, what is honed, accumulated, and learned at the regional level will help the young players gain extra confidence to strive for higher goals.

"Through continuous tournaments and real battles, the experience and grit of young players will be forged in the toughest moments, helping Vietnamese football build a solid next generation. Success is not only measured by immediate results but, more importantly, by developing a group of players with distinct qualities and sufficient capability to compete at higher levels in the future."

Coach Hoang Van Phuc observes that in recent years, Vietnam's youth football has seen many positive changes with the emergence of several promising young generations: "However, to maintain sustainable development, junior national teams need more quality tournaments to gain experience and enhance professional skills. No matter how well young players are trained, if they don't regularly compete and test themselves, it's very difficult to develop comprehensively."

These youth-level playgrounds help players get accustomed to competitive pressure, improve tactical thinking, and accumulate experience before stepping onto bigger stages in Asia or the world.

"For youth football, we should not focus on results but on the effectiveness of the entire process. From that perspective, we can see that in recent years, Vietnam's young squads at U17, U19, and U20 levels have all participated in Asian finals. All these successive generations of players have gone through a journey from the U17, U19, to U20 youth teams."

"A skilled, resilient, and experienced next generation is an extremely valuable asset for Vietnamese football in the future. This can be seen as the 'sweet fruit' of systematic, well-organized training centers at club level and policies prioritizing youth football development in the country. From here, the foundation to gradually elevate Vietnam's football status has been laid, aiming for higher goals in the future."