LookAtVietnam – The ASEAN Football Championship-AFF-Suzuki Cup gold medal win was a triumph for the national team last December, but coach Henrique Calisto said there is still a long way to go to qualify for a future World Cup.

Coach Henrique Calisto.

He helped Long An rise from a small team to a powerhouse in just a few years. The team was promoted to V-League in 2001 before winning the national championship twice in 2005-06.

In 2002, he also led the national team to a third at the ASEAN Football Championship (formerly known as the Tiger Cup) in Indonesia.

Calisto suggested to the Viet Nam Football Federation in 2003 that each team should be allowed to sign five foreign footballers, of whom three could be on the field at any given time.

His idea was launched in the V-League and the First Division three years ago.

“Imported players will encourage competitiveness among domestic footballers. All players have to train hard and demonstrate their best effort if they want to be in the starting line-up every game,” he said.

Football not athletics

Calisto has disagreed with critics who have said that Vietnamese footballers are not good at fitness and competition against rivals.

“Football is not athletics. Physical strength is not a big problem for Vietnamese players, but their tactics and knowledge of football must be improved.

“They must study the game on the internet and watch all international football matches,” he said.

Vietnamese footballers are not technically bad or physically at a major disadvantage, they just lacked ideas and had a poor attitude to the game, he said.

Calisto pointed out that left winger Le Tan Tai, who is a smallest player on the national squad, always competes at top fitness, and that short players Nguyen Quang Hai and Pham Thanh Luong have excellent skills and positioning on the field.

“Your life is 90 minutes on the football field and the things that go on off the field should never influence your performance during a game,” he has told his teams.

Coaches

Calisto, who at the age of 25 was the youngest coach in the Portuguese Premier League, said young Vietnamese coaches should work hard to do their job well.

“They need a good knowledge of football, an ability to keep track of players, and they need leadership ability so players understand who makes the final decisions. Coaches should know more than one language in order to communicate with different schools of football throughout the world.”

Calisto, who agreed to take over the U-23 team and the national senior team, will set his sights on new targets as he prepare for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos this December and the Asian Cup Qualifiers.

Viet Nam’s football has not won a gold medal at the SEA Games since the debut of the regional games in Thailand in 1959.

Two years ago, the Vietnamese senior team qualified for the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup when the country co-hosted with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News