The 'tempo control' puzzle of Vietnam U23 ahead of Asian qualifying

The training ground at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center was quiet on an August morning. Head coach Kim Sang-sik did not have his players work on sprints or heavy fitness drills; instead, he repeated a three-touch combination exercise in the middle third. Nguyen Thai Son and Bui Vĩ Hao constantly swapped positions, but the one who caught the staff's attention was Khue Van Khang – a player who ran less, passed shorter, but stood in the right spots to break the opponent's press. If one simply read the statistics, it would be easy to conclude that Vietnam U23 lack a central midfielder who can launch attacks. But watching the training sessions closely, I recognized a counter-intuitive signal: Coach Kim is trying to turn Khue Van Khang into an 'anchor' who does not need many touches. He stands between the two centre-backs, covering for the full-backs when they push up, and when he receives the ball, he needs just one touch before shuffling it wide. This resembles how modern European football uses a 'silent' holding midfielder to regulate tempo – not flashy, but keeping the team from being torn apart by counter-attacks. The story of Vietnam U23 in the upcoming qualifiers is not about how many goals they score, but whether they dare to trade control for security. In Southeast Asian youth tournaments, we often impose ourselves with physicality and pace. But against opponents with more consistent technical foundations like Iraq or Uzbekistan, naively charging into a high press will turn the match into a meaningless chase. From a tactical standpoint, Vietnam U23 need a 'trigger' from the back, not just a No.10 standing waiting for the ball. I recall an evening in Bishkek last year when Vietnam U23 lost to Kyrgyzstan U23 because they could not escape the press in the first half. The players kept launching long aimless balls, gradually surrendering any chance to control the game. Now, Coach Kim spends 30 minutes per day on 'one-touch line breaking' – a small detail but one that speaks volumes: the team needs to keep the ball in order to made opponents tired, rather than chasing the ball. No one denies the importance of wingers like Nguyen Dinh Bac or Võ Hoàng Minh Khoa when there is space behind. But what makes Vietnam U23 hard to play against in this qualification round is the ability to transition from defense to attack in just three passes. Bui Vĩ Hao is deployed as a withdrawn striker, but in reality he often drops to receive from the centre-backs, dragging the opponent's defenders out of position. This is the kind of modern football that few Southeast Asian youth teams dare to play: accepting not having a fixed No.9. Mainstream media often talks about 'big-game mentality', but from my records of youth-team matches, mentality does not come from shouting slogans. It comes from players understanding their exact duties without the ball: when the right-back pushes up, who covers? When possession is lost in the opponent's half, who tracks back slowly but arrives at the key spot? These details do not show on television, but they decide the result. There is a counter-intuitive view: Vietnam U23 should to score fewer goals in pre-tournament friendlies. Not because they are weak, but because heavy victories encourage young players to rely on inspiration in attack. When they later face a packed defense, they will panic without the proper attacking patterns. Look at how Lê Văn Đô (born 2026) has controlled the tempo for U23 in recent months: he rarely produces defense-splitting passes, but he is always the safest option under pressure. For a young team, that safety is more valuable than a single moment of flair. I remember a saying from a dressing-room leader: 'The ball rolls by, the people remain.' Vietnam U23 do not lack runners, but they need people who stay in position for 90 minutes. If Coach Kim Sang-sik solves that puzzle, I believe they will advance. If not, this qualifying round could be the missing piece that people will only recognize years later. Before the kickoff, listen. The referee's whistle does not only signal the start of the match; it signals a long process in which every tiny detail is rewarded. For Vietnam U23, the journey begins in those unseen training sessions.