National and U23 teams head coach Henrique Calisto (1st, L) recommends choosing young coaches as his assistants to give the coaching staff some youthful energy

Vietnam’s national and U23 teams head coach Henrique Calisto Wednesday recommended choosing young coaches as his assistants.

Youthful energy

Calisto wants young assistants to create energetic and lively coaching teams. This will help the young coaches to mature in a positive working environment at a level that is quite different from that of a club, Trung said.

Calisto has submitted Ninh Binh coach Nguyen Van Sy, Da Nang coach Le Huynh Duc, Song Lam Nghe An coach Nguyen Huu Thang, Dong Tam Long An coach Tran Cong Minh and T&T Hanoi coach Trieu Quang Ha as possible assistants.

The selection of Calisto’s assistants will be finalized when he meets with the National Coaches Council again late next month.

According to Trung, assistant coaches for the U23 team will be chosen based on three criteria: ability to foster unity, honesty and loyalty.

For Calisto, those three criteria are more significant than coaching ability. If an assistant meets them, some inexperience is not a big problem, Trung said.

Calisto expects to have two separate, strong coaching teams. The Portuguese tactician promised there would be no interference between the two teams.

The U23 will meet for the first time this season on September 4th and will leave for a training trip in the Republic of Korea from September 20-29. A practice match between the national team and the U23s is planned for October.

The two teams will also have separate training and practice matches in October. The national team will compete in the Ho Chi Minh City Cup from the 20th until the 24th while the U23s will participate in the VFF Cup in Hanoi from November 4-8.

“I will not be overloaded”

The only major concern with having two national selections, the skipper confided, is overworking the players and the coach, as may have happened in 2007. Then-head coach Alfred Riedl led the national team to success in the AFC championships when they reached the quarterfinals, but his U23 team suffered an embarrassing loss to Myanmar in the semifinals of the 24th SEA Games.

“But this year, the national team will only have two official international matches and three friendlies. I thought and thought about why everyone is so worried for me. I will not be overloaded!”

The General Department of Physical Training and Sports said it had set a goal for the U23s to reach the final at the 25th SEA Games in Laos late this year and for the national team to go as far as possible at the 2011 Asian Cup. Calisto agreed to these goals for the two teams.

Reported by Lan Phuong