Winning the 2019 Asian Cup
In 2018, Vietnam Football was marked a milestone with historical victories. They are the achievements of the U23 Vietnam runner-up at the 2018 U23 Asian Cup, top 4 strongest teams of the Vietnam Olympic team in the 2018 ASIAD and AFF Cup championship after 10 years of waiting. Therefore, at the 2019 Asian Cup, their fans continue to expect Coach Park Hang-seo and his team to make miracles for the national football in this tournament.
2019 Asian Cup final round will take place in UAE from January 5 to February 1, with the participation of all the strongest teams in the continent such as Iran, Korea, Japan and Australia … Vietnam is located in Group D with Iran, Iraq and Yemen. Park Hang-seo and his team set a goal of the knockout stage.
According to football experts, 2019 ASIAN Cup will be an extremely difficult tournament for Vietnam. In Group D, Vietnam will have to face a strong opponent Iran which country has been in the World Cup for many times. Iraq is also superior to the Vietnam, so being one of the top two positions is a very difficult goal for the Vietnam. According to the schedule, the Vietnamese team will meet the Iraqi team in the opening match on January 8, 2019. The next opponents of Park Hang Seo’s team are Iran (January 12, 2019) and Yemen (on January 16, 2019)
SEA Games 30, Para Games in the Philippines
SEA Games 30 will take place from November 30 to December 11, 2019 in Manila capital, Clark city and Subic city, the Philippines. The 2019 Southeast Asian Games will come into history because the Philippines hosts 56 competitions with 63 divisions, the most contents of competition in the history of the event.
According to the announcement of the host country, athletics will have 41 contents. Meanwhile, many Vietnam’s strong contents of athletics in Vietnam are cut such as female long jump, female long jump, female 10,000m and female marathon, male and female 20km walking and female heptathlon. At this conference, the host also includes many local special subjects such as grass ball, floor ball, martial arts stick and kurash …
After listening to other nations’ opinions about competition program, on December 18, 2018, the Philippines sent document to the National Olympic Committee to inform the number of subjects and the content of the SEA Games 30. A number of subjects are still 56 but the content is 523.
SEA Games 30 is expected to have about 8,750 athletes from 11 countries. Vietnam set a goal of the Top 3 position, apart from strong sports that need to be promoted; Vietnam also set an important goal to be male and female football champions.
For the sport of the disabled in Vietnam, after the success at the 2018 Asian Para Games with 40 medals, ranking 12th among 44 countries and territories, the athletes shall embark on preparation for the ASEAN Para Games in the Philippines in 2019 and aim at the higher target of the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2020.
2020 Olympic qualifier
At the conference on review 2018 and future missions in 2019, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that 2019 is a challenging year for high achievement sports with the goal of keeping Top 3 position at the SEA Games 30 and gaining more official slots to attend the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. To accomplish this mission, the Minister asked the General Department of Sports to have specific plans, focusing on key sports and athletes, reviewing each subject, each athlete to get a lot of chances to attend the Olympics, and trying to achieve the higher goal as 2016 achievement of gunner Hoang Xuan Vinh.
At the 2016 Olympics, “Vietnam has overcome all difficulties and challenges in the selection process to win 23 official competitions to attend the Olympics and this is the largest number of Vietnamese athletes ever in the Olympics”. At the end of the 2016 Olympics, Vietnam ranked 48th on the medal table with 1 gold medal and 1 silver medal awarded to gunner Hoang Xuan Vinh. This is the most successful Olympics of Vietnam in history.
Olympic 2020 is expected to take place in Tokyo, Japan from July 24 to August 9 with 33 sports. At the Olympics, the IOC decides to include five new sports that develop fast and attract many attenders, such as karatedo, baseball / softball, skis, sports climbing and windsurfing. With these subjects, Vietnam is expected to have a high result in karatedo. In international sports festivals, Vietnam karatedo won gold medals at ASIAD in 2006 and 2010.
First World Beach Games
The first World Beach Games will take place in San Diego, USA from 10 to 15 October, 2019 with 15 competitions and 17 divisions. 17 divisions are Handball, Karate, Football, Tennis, 4×4 beach volleyball, beach wrestling, 3×3 basketball, BMX bike, sport climbing, skateboarding, water sports, sailing , surfing (short board – longboard), swimming and waterskiing (waterski jump – wakeboard). Most of these competitions are different from the ones at the Olympic Games.
It is expected to attract 1,300 athletes from all over world and take place within 6 days. The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) does not expect all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to attend this event but hopes that all 206 NOCs will attend the ANOC General Assembly (happening during the event).
This world sporting event was expected to take place in 2017, but it must be pushed back to 2019 to have enough time to prepare.
2019 National Championship Football Championship (V.League)
The V. League 2019 season is expected to start on March 3, 2019 with the Super Cup match 2018 and end on November 3, 2019 with the National Cup Final. The tournaments will open and end in turn: The National Cup will open on March 10 and end November 3, 2019, the National First Division will open on March 30 and end on September 28, 2019, the National Championship will start on March 31 and end on October 26, 2019.
The national championship (V. League) 2019 has 1.5 slots of relegation; the National First Division: 1.5 slots of promotion. There will be 01 relegation in the 2019 National First Division. This season, the Women’s National Championship will adjust the format. The teams will participate in the round competition and organizers will calculate the final score. The semi-final and final matches are not held. The Women’s National Cup might be organized if permitted.
In the 2018 season, there was increase in the number of disciplinary measures against the players’ responses to the referees, coaches and club leaders, excessive behavioral errors, rude, violating the opponent’s body and phenomenon of burning flares in the stadium… Hopefully, these behaviors and phenomena will be minimized in the 2019 season.
Hoàng Vinh