The ups and downs of Japanese coach Miura and Vietnam football

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) decided to sack the Japanese coach after nearly two years of cooperation . During his time in Vietnam, Miura made improvements even though fans were frustrated in the later period.

On May 10, 2014, coach Toshiya Miura officially signed a contract with the VFF to lead the U23 Vietnam and the Vietnam national squad. The Japanese coach was expected to revive Vietnam football after the failure at the AFF Cup 2012 and the 27th SEA Games.

On July 2, 2014, in the friendly match against Myanmar, Vietnam defeated Myanmar 6-0, incredible results even though Myanmar was said to be weaker than Vietnam. This was the persuasive debut of coach Miura.

On September 15, 2014, Olympic Vietnam trounced Iran 4-1 in the qualifier round of the 17th Asian Games. This result made Vietnamese fans happy and was a big shock to the Asian press.

Then, Olympic Vietnam defeated Kyrgyzstan 1-0 but finally the team stopped in the 1/8 round, losing 1-3 to the UAE. This was a successful tournament when coach Miura unveiled excellent players as Huy Toan, Hoang Thinh, Huy Hung …

7/12/2014: Playing very well in the qualifier round, Vietnam defeated Malaysia 2-1 thanks to goals scored by from Huy Toan, Van Quyet in the second semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2014.

11/12/2014: Vietnam surprisingly lost 2-4 against Malaysia at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, losing its card to the AFF Cup final. The game surprised Vietnamese fans because of the bad performance of Vietnamese players. Immediately after the match, Le Hung Dung, VFF President announced an investigation whether players were match-fixing.

27/3/2015: U23 Vietnam defeated U23 Malaysia 2-1 in the qualifying round of Asia U23 Championships. Three points gained from this game brought Vietnam to the Asia U23 tournament.

24/5/2015: Vietnam lost to Thailand 0-1 in the opening game of the qualifying round of World Cup 2018. In this game, Vietnamese players left ugly images as they continuously made rough errors against Thai players. From this game, public opinion began opposing Miura’s tactic.

13/6/2015: U23 Vietnam lost 1-2 against Myanmar and stopped in the semifinals of 28th SEA Games. This was a failure of Vietnam in the game against a weaker rival. Vietnamese players missed at least 10 opportunities to score a goal. The VFF was extremely disappointed but still claimed that winning a bronze medal at the SEA Games was a turning point.

8/9/2015: Vietnam won 2-1 in Taiwan, won the first three points in the 2018 World Cup qualifying round. However, Miura’s team was fiercely criticized by fans for the soulless, deadlock playing style.

8/10/2015: Vietnam got a draw in the game with Iraq in the 2018 World Cup qualifying round. This game, Miura applied the counter-attack tactics very well.

13/10/2015: Vietnam was defeated 0-3 by Thailand at Hanoi’s My Dinh Stadium. It was the culmination of frustration, because previously Miura had declared that Vietnam would defeat Thailand. After this match, businessman Doan Nguyen Duc, the owner of Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC, criticized Miura as the worst foreign coach so far.

20/1/2016: U23 Vietnam ended U23 Asia tournament by the 2-3 failure in the game against the UAE. Miura continues to be criticized for the playing style that was unsuitable to Vietnamese players.

28/1/2016: VFF officially fired the coach although his contract was only two months valid.

Nam Nguyen

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