LATIN MODEL FOR VIETNAM

The 59-year-old Calisto has been confirmed as the person to fill the position left vacant by Austrian Alfred Riedl, who resigned after the SEA Games last year.

“I will ask the team to follow the Latin model in which we use short passes and a creative playing style, which are suitable for us,” said Calisto, who will officially begin work on 15 April.

“Vietnamese players are intelligent, agile and dedicated. They also have good technique. I believe that at least five of them can play overseas.

“My predecessors worked very well. They left me a team with skilled members. Now I just have to convert them to train in my way.”

Calisto comes into the job with plenty of experience, as he was the national coach in 2003 and who had also guided V-League’s Dong Tam Long An to back-to-back V-League titles in 2005 and 2006.

Among his target would be to lead the national team to the final of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championship which will be co-hosted by Thailand and Indonesia later this year.

He will also have to put together a strong team for the 25th SEA Games which will be held in Laos as well as the Asian Cup qualifying round next year.

But his immediate concern would be the VFF Open (31 May to 4 June 2008) in Hanoi, the HCM City Cup (1-10 October 2008) and then the Agribank Cup which will begin on 20 Oct 2008.

“I know that I will have to shoulder a big responsibility in this position,” added Calisto.

“But as you know, one person can do nothing so I appeal to all people, coaches, officials, fans and journalists to work with us.

“I have my own target: to win every game, one by one. I only pay attention to the coming competition and I have to win. To do that I have to work hard and study every rival.”