Phan Van Tai Em

VietNamNet Bridge - Six rounds of the national football championship V-league 2007 have passed but football fans have not seen any real ‘bandmaster’. 

Around 7-8 years ago, mentioning Vietnamese football teams, football fans would immediately bring up Nguyen Liem Thanh of the HCM City Police club, Vo Hoang Buu of Saigon Port, Nguyen Hong Son of Military, Vu Minh Hieu of Hanoi Police, and Nguyen Huu Dang of Khanh Hoa club. But now it is difficult for football fans to pick out a really outstanding name. 

Foreign players: do not deserve what they are paid 

In recent football seasons, the mission of leading the Hoang Anh Gia Lai club has been often given to Thai half-backs. In the 2007 football season, this role belongs to Thonglao. 

Considered the number-one half-back of Southeast Asian football at present, Thonglao is now overloaded because he has commitments to the Thai national squad. Moreover, he is still new to the environment of Hoang Anh Gia Lai so Thonglao has not met the expectations of Hoang Anh Gia Lai yet. 

Similarly, that’s the case of newcomer Diego of Binh Duong club. Showing his outstanding ability in friendly matches before the football season 2007, Diego suddenly played not very well in the official V-League tournament. 

This Brazilian half-back becomes embarrassed by the violent playing styles of opposing teams, and thus, is finding it very difficult to find an official position among half-backs of Binh Duong. 

Other clubs like Hoa Phat - Hanoi, Binh Dinh or Southern Steel - Saigon Port are also using foreign ‘conductors’ at different levels. However, foreign players like Padilha of Hoa Phat - Hanoi, Aniekan of Binh Dinh or Helio of Southern Steel - Saigon Port don’t play impressively. They have not proved their creativeness or the ability to launch attacks, the extremely important quality of ‘bandmasters’ on football grounds. 

Local players: very dim 

Trong Loc has become a central half-back of Nam Dinh Club. Along with the leave of Van Sy and Trung Kien, the role of Trong Loc in Nam Dinh Club is clearer. However, Loc’s techniques are not very good, and prevent him from breaking through the defences of opposing teams. 

Meanwhile, coach Calisto of Dong Tam Long An will still have to rely on the pair of Tai Em - Minh Phuong though Tai Em no longer maintains his former playing style. 

In Binh Duong and Da Nang clubs, the ‘bandmaster’ role is given to half-backs Truong Giang and Hong Minh, who come from the national squad and are considered to have good qualifications. 

However, they have not shown outstanding ability compared to other half-backs. 

The lack of good central half-backs makes some clubs test different players for this position and none of them can show leadership. 

For example, coach Hoang Van Phuc of Hanoi - ACB has used Van Minh, Thanh Long and Sessay Koeman as central half-backs of the team but they can’t compare to its previous central halfback, Minh Hieu. 

Song Lam Nghe An is waiting for the ‘development’ of Nhu Thuat, who was previously considered the successor of ‘conductor’ Hong Son around 6-7 years ago on the national squad.

The best half-backs of Vietnam in the past five years, Huu Thang and Quoc Vuong, have gone different ways while brilliant ‘conductors’ of V-League in recent seasons like Abbey, Issawa, Rogerio and Tawan, have said goodbye to this tournament. 

Vietnamese football fans perhaps will have to wait longer to see a real ‘conductor’. 

PV