At the Promotion Fund of Vietnamese Football Talents (PVF), U22 players started their first official training for SEA Games 31, hosted in Vietnam next year. They had gathered in Hanoi on Sunday for Covid-19 testing, with all 48 members confirmed negative for the virus. |
Unfortunately, one player had to go home because of injury. The remaining 47 were divided into two teams by head coach Park Hang-seo. Assistant coach Lee Young-jin (wearing a mask) is in charge of team A. |
Team B was overseen by another assistant coach, Kim Han-yoon. |
Head coach Park Hang-seo stood on a higher ground to observe the players although the heavy rain caused him some difficulties. |
After warm-up and basic exercises, two teams were tasked to play each other. |
Nguyen Hoang Duy (with the ball) is fondly remembered for refusing to take part in match fixing with his U21 Dong Thap teammates last year. |
Nguyen Van Toan (wearing pink gloves) is one of five goalkeepers called up and also the most experienced, having won SEA Games 30 gold with the U22 squad last year. |
Because of the heavy rain, the first training session only lasted 90 minutes instead of the normal two hours. The U22 team will continue training until August 27 and to keep their tactics secret, Park only allowed press access lasting 25 minutes per session. |