According to the Nhan Dan (People)online newspaper, despite numerous expressions of surprise and evendoubt about this decision, hopes are still pinned on the new coach fromthe land of the rising sun to bring a fresher wind to the national teamsin the foreseeable future.
Unknown as he may be toVietnamese football lovers, Toshiya Miura is rather well-known in Japan,especially for his ability to achieve success with limited resources.
Thisis Miura’s outstanding strength and also the reason why the JapanFootball Association (JFA) decided to introduce him to the VFF as partof the support and co-operation programme between the two sides and notmerely as another trainer.
To date, Miura has led two Japaneseclubs, Omiya Ardija and Consadole Sapporo, to promotion from J-League 2to J-League 1, Japan’s top football league.
He demonstrated hiscoaching ability while training those two teams, developing in bothcases a solid playing style. Moreover, he is also experienced in workingwith young players, and once trained ‘raw jades’ into real talents.
EijiKawashima – the goalkeeper of the current Japan national team – istypical evidence of Miura’s ability. His special talent was discoveredby Miura at the age of 18, and Kawashima was constantly entrusted as theteam’s main goalkeeper during his time of playing for Omiya Ardija,which granted him opportunities to demonstrate his abilities and beselected to the national team, where he has become Japan’s number onegoalkeeper over the last decade.
Those characteristics of theJapanese coach are well-suited to the Vietnam national team, whichrequires a restart following four consecutive years of failing at theregional arena - from the 2011 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games to the 2012AFF Suzuki Cup and the 2013 SEA Games.
Currently, Vietnamesefootball does not need a coach with a sparkling resume, but rather onewho knows how to improve the situation. It will be not so difficult forthe newly appointed coach Miura to seek promising new talent for thenational and national Olympic teams while V-League giants Hanoi T&T,SNB Da Nang, Song Lam Nghe An and Hoang Anh Gia Lai have been payingever more attention to investing in each successive generation. Manyexperts hope that the Japanese tactician’s capacity of discovering rawtalent will continue to shine in Vietnam.
Miura will also facecertain obstacles in his new post as the national coach, however. He haslittle experience in working with national teams and does not have muchtime to select his players as the V-League 2014 and the First Divisiontournament were half over when he signed his contract with the VFF.
TheVFF has also taken appropriate measures in response to this situation,affirming not to assign specific achievement targets for Miura at the17th Asian Games in September and the 2014 ASEAN Football Federation(AFF) Suzuki Cup a month later.
Freed from the pressure toperform, Miura is expected to whole-heartedly build a team with a strongbase instead of only looking towards short-term goals as did hispredecessors, who subsequently fell under the pressure of dreams andleft bitter lessons about the importance of basic values.-VNA