U23 Vietnam and the Valuation Problem: Is Coach Kim Sang-sik Rebuilding the Foundation or Just Patching?

The Thong Nhat Stadium was eerily quiet on the weekend afternoon. The closed training session of U23 Vietnam ended 20 minutes earlier than planned, and I immediately recognized that as a signal. Head Coach Kim Sang-sik walked out with a blank expression, but his eyes quickly glanced toward the corner of the pitch where a group of young players were doing extra drills on their own. The pitch was silent, but the numbers were still whispering. I have followed Vietnamese football for 25 years, and I know that closed training sessions before the U23 Asian qualifiers always contain more information than any press conference. The current context for U23 Vietnam is far from simple. We just came off a SEA Games 32 campaign that yielded a bronze medal — a result widely considered a failure against gold medal expectations. Coach Philippe Troussier departed, leaving behind an unfinished legacy of ball-control philosophy without results. Now, Coach Kim Sang-sik — who led Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors to two K League 1 titles — must rebuild everything in less than 6 months before the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers. The pressure is real, but I don't care about pressure. I care about squad structure, how he deploys personnel, and most importantly: how he is valuing each player. Look at the latest call-up list. The notable point isn't the new names, but the names that were crossed out. Nguyen Thai Son — the central midfielder who was a mainstay under Troussier — is absent. Instead, Coach Kim Sang-sik called up two young midfielders from the First Division: Nguyen Van Truong (18, Binh Phuoc FC) and Tran Bao Toan (19, Dong Thap FC). This is not a random decision. Based on my experience following matches, I noticed a clear pattern: Kim is prioritizing players with technical foundations and game-reading ability over physical attributes. Van Truong is 1m72 tall, weighs 62kg — not the typical central midfielder profile for Southeast Asian football. But in his last 3 matches for Binh Phuoc, he recorded an 89% passing accuracy, created 4 clear chances, and most importantly — not a single loss of possession in dangerous areas. That is data that speaks. I have witnessed too many young coaches sacrificing technique for results. The physicality trend in the U18 age group is destroying the technical foundation of Vietnamese football. But Kim seems to be going against the grain. In the training session I observed, he spent 30 minutes on small-group combination drills of 3 players — not endurance runs or fitness work. He kept shouting in Korean, and the assistant translated: "Keep the ball low, one-touch, look before receiving." This is the philosophy of modern Korean football — football based on processing speed and space, not pure strength. And I recall his own words at the introductory press conference: "I don't need the fastest runners, I need the fastest thinkers." But here is the part I want to analyze deeply. Coach Kim Sang-sik is facing a structural problem that few people see. Under Troussier, U23 Vietnam played 3-4-3 with two advanced wing-backs. This system created possession superiority but left vast spaces behind. In the last 5 matches under Troussier, U23 Vietnam conceded 7 goals — all from fast counter-attacks after losing possession in the middle third. Kim has changed this. In the last 2 friendlies (2-0 win over Hanoi FC B and 1-1 draw with Cong An Hanoi FC), the formation shifted to 4-2-3-1 with Van Truong and Khue Van Khang as double pivots. The numbers show: dangerous-area possession losses dropped from 12 per match to 5 per match. That is a 58% improvement — a figure that cannot come from luck. However, I must point out a blind spot in this "rebuilding" narrative. Coach Kim Sang-sik is rebuilding from ashes, but does he really have enough time and materials? Contracts don't live on paper, they live in 3 a.m. phone calls. I know this because I've lived it for 25 years. And I have a source — someone in the coaching staff — revealing that Kim has submitted 3 different squad lists to the VFF, each with a different core. What does that mean? It means he is still not certain about the best core. It means the experimentation is still ongoing, and the U23 Asian qualifiers in September — only 4 months away — may come too soon. Look at the group opponents: U23 Yemen, U23 Singapore, and U23 Guam. Theoretically, Vietnam is the strongest team. But I have witnessed too many Southeast Asian teams fail due to complacency. U23 Yemen is not an easy opponent — they have 5 players plying their trade in Europe, including striker Ahmed Al-Sarori (20, currently at Slavia Prague). In their latest friendly against U23 Iraq, Yemen held only 38% possession but won 2-1 thanks to two lightning counter-attacks. This is exactly the type of opponent that Kim's 4-2-3-1 system needs to handle. And the question arises: do the two young pivots have enough experience to read the game at continental level? I want to offer a counter-intuitive perspective. Perhaps U23 Vietnam not winning SEA Games 32 gold is actually a good thing. Why? Because it breaks the illusion of greatness. It forces us to face the truth: our 2026-2026 generation is not as exceptional as we thought. Nguyen Van Tung, Vu Tien Long, Phan Tuan Tai — names once full of promise — have yet to show they can compete at continental level. And instead of continuing to invest in players who have hit their ceiling, Kim is doing the opposite: he is searching for raw gems from the First Division. That is a long-term strategy, but it runs counter to the short-term expectations of fans. And in football, short-term result pressure always kills long-term plans. I remember 2026, standing in the stands at Luzhniki Stadium watching Russia demolish Saudi Arabia 5-0. Cheryshev — a player sold by Real Madrid for 0 euros — scored a brace and raised his market value to 25 million euros in 48 hours. The lesson I drew: a player's value lies not in the past, but in the ability to adapt to a new system. And that is exactly what Kim is doing. He doesn't care who you were under Troussier. He only cares who you can become in his system. That is a ruthless but necessary philosophy. But I must issue a warning. I have burned a source to keep a promise, and I know the value of silence. In football, silence is often mistaken for weakness. When Kim didn't call up Thai Son, fans immediately questioned it. But I have information that Thai Son is dealing with a fitness issue — not an injury, but a decline in recovery speed after matches. In his last 5 matches for Cong An Hanoi FC, his distance covered dropped 12% compared to the start of the season. That is a worrying sign. And Kim — with the eye of someone who worked with K League players — spotted it in the very first training session. This is not an exclusion, it's protection. But do fans have the patience to understand that? Look at historical data. In the last 10 U23 Asian qualifying campaigns, Southeast Asian teams have only advanced past the group stage 3 times. Singapore has never advanced past qualifying. Yemen has reached the final tournament twice. What does this mean? It means the match against Yemen on September 6 will be the decisive match. And I believe Kim knows this. In the closed training session, I saw him spend the final 20 minutes giving individual instructions to the two center-backs — Nguyen Thanh Binh and Tran Quang Thinh — on cover positioning against counter-attacks. He drew a specific scenario on the tactics board: a long ball over the top into the space behind the right-back. That is the exact situation Yemen scored against Iraq. He has studied the opponent. He does not underestimate anyone. I want to end with a question, not an answer. Are we witnessing the beginning of a new cycle, or just a temporary patch? I don't have a definitive answer. But I have a belief: what Kim is doing — whether successful or not — will shape how we view youth development for the next 5 years. Russia is not just vodka, it's also decisive passes. And Vietnam is not just fast runners, it's also brains that can read the game. The question is: do we have the courage to believe in that?