Golden Dragons prepare for World Cup qualifiers

The session started at 5 p.m. at the Promotion Fund of Vietnamese Football Talent (PVF) Academy in Hanoi. Head coach Park Hang-seo only allowed the media a 25-minute glimpse of training to avoid leaking tactics.

The South Korean coach observed the players carefully, encouraging some to pull up their socks.

In the first part of the session, players practiced short passes within a distance of five meters.

Park also instructed players to smoothly receive passes to avoid losing posession.

"Your first touch must be good, you cannot let the ball bounce off your foot too far," Park told his squad.

Keepers were instructed by goalkeeper coach Nguyen The Anh.

Left-back Doan Van Hau, right-back Nguyen Trong Hoang and full-back Le Van Xuan had their own session with Dr. Choi Ju-young since they have yet to fully recover from injury.

Park paid specific attention to the team's key forward Nguyen Cong Phuong.

Even when other players took a break, Phuong kept training with Park to perfect his ball control.

Phuong has been Park's number one choice on the offensive ever since he took over the team in late 2017.

Hanoi FC's new South Korean coach Park Choong-kyun (in white) was there to watch the training session of the national team.

The national team will keep training in Hanoi until May 26 then go to United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the World Cup qualifiers. They will play Indonesia on June 7, Malaysia on the 11th and UAE on the 15th. Six points out of these three games would see Vietnam advancing to the final round of World Cup qualification for the first time in history.