Head coach Park Hang-seo (64), who finished his 5-year journey as the Vietnamese national team coach, finished runner-up in the 2022 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Mitsubishi Electric Cup (Mitsubishi Cup), which ended on the 16th. It changed the history of football.
It was in 2017 that Park made a relationship with Vietnam.
He assisted coach Guus Hiddink (Netherlands) at the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup and contributed to the ‘four-final myth’. After that, he served as a command tower for the Olympic team, K-League Gyeongnam FC, Jeonnam Dragons, and Sangju Sangmu.
In 2017, he directed the Changwon City Hall in the National League for Unemployment Soccer, but failed to achieve great results, and he started a new soccer life in Vietnam, where he was appointed in October of that year.
Coach Park, who expressed his aspirations to raise Vietnam from the top 130 in the FIFA rankings at the time to the top 100 and make it a top Asian team, won the Asian Football Federation (AFC) under-23 (U-23) in the first tournament in early 2018. The championship has been successful.
In this tournament, Vietnam became the first Southeast Asian country to advance to the semifinals and then vomited its spirit to rise to the final.
In the final, they lost 1-2 to Uzbekistan after extra time and had to be content with the runner-up, but coach Park ignited the ‘syndrome’ by leading the team to the first runner-up in the AFC-sponsored competition in Vietnamese football history and the best performance.
Similarly, at the 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Asian Games, where the U-23 team participated, Vietnam wrote another myth under the direction of coach Park.
Previously, reaching the round of 16 was the best result, but in the round of 16 of this tournament, they defeated Bahrain 1-0 to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time, and then defeated Syria 1-0 to advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, they clashed with coach Kim Hak-beom’s Korea and lost 1-3, and in the 3rd and 4th place matches, they lost to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a penalty shootout and finished in 4th place.
Afterwards, coach Park’s 2018 marked a splendid finale by winning the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup (now the Mitsubishi Cup).
Vietnam had the best record of advancing to the semifinals in four competitions since its first championship in 2008, but it advanced to the semifinals with an undefeated score of 3 wins and 1 draw in the 2018 competition, and achieved the championship in 10 years by defeating the Philippines and Malaysia in the tournament.
Director Park rose to the ranks of Vietnam’s ‘national hero’, and at the end of the year, polling agency Realmeter’s ‘Best Person of the Year’ poll, he ranked second after then-President Moon Jae-in, receiving great attention in Korea.
Vietnam’s momentum continued in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
In the group stage, they stayed in 3rd place with 1 win and 2 losses, but entered the top 4 teams among the top 3 teams and advanced dramatically to the round of 16.
In the quarterfinals, it was lost to Japan in a penalty shootout, and the first quarterfinals failed, but it tied with the best ever record (quarterfinals in 2007).
Director Park, who renewed a 2 + 1 year contract with Vietnam in November 2019 ahead of the contract expiration in January 2020, was selected as the AFF’Director of the Year’ around that time and was recognized for his contributions.
In December of that year, it added a new history by giving Vietnam its first soccer gold medal at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the largest comprehensive tournament in Southeast Asia.
In the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, coach Park left a significant mark.
After finishing the second qualifying round in second place in Group G, Vietnam entered the top five teams among the second-placed teams in each group, successfully advancing to the final qualifying round for the first time.
In the final qualifiers for the World Cup, which began in 2021, it stayed at the bottom of Group B and failed to qualify for the finals, but in February of last year, it defeated China 3-1 and won the first win in the final qualifier and the first win in A match against China.먹튀검증
Then, in the last game of the final qualifying round, Vietnam drew 1-1 with Asia’s strong Japan.
Coach Park, who succeeded in winning two SEA games in a row in May last year, tried to reap the ‘beauty of the end’ by winning the Mitsubishi Cup, which ended his accompany with Vietnam, but was blocked by Thailand, the most successful country, and had to be satisfied with the runner-up.
There were regrets in the last tournament, but coach Park left after placing Vietnam, which was in the middle of Southeast Asia, with strong stamina, speed, and solid organization, and put it on the top team in the region.
Vietnam, which was ranked 134th in the FIFA rankings in 2016, entered the top 100 as coach Park took office. In December of last year, the ranking was 96th.
The number of Vietnamese players who grew up under Park’s system is also being called by overseas clubs.
Striker Nguyen Cong Phuong (now Yokohama) was loaned to Incheon United in the K-League in 2019 and joined Sint Traudon in Belgium in July of that year, leaving the first Vietnamese player to advance to Europe. He plays for Four FC.
Recently, striker Nguyen Van Toan wore the K League 2 Seoul E-Land uniform.
In addition to Vietnamese players advancing to the K-League team, coach Park’s presence has also contributed to football exchanges between the two countries, such as the Vietnamese national team conducting field training several times in Korea.
Director Park’s role is not insignificant in the growing popularity of Korean leaders in Southeast Asia.
After he started producing results in Vietnam, Korean coaches continued to advance to Vietnam’s professional teams, and Korean coaches took the helm of the Southeast Asian national team, such as Shin Tae-yong (Indonesia) and Kim Pan-gon (Malaysia).