HO CHI MINH CITY (8 July 2012) – Sergio Gargelli, the chief coach of Vietnam’s Futsal club Thai Son Nam felt that the country will need structural changes if they want either the national team or the club to progress further in continental futsal.
In the recently concluded AFC Futsal Club Championship, Thai Son Nam conceded 16 goals as against scoring just two goals. They finished the tournament rooted at the bottom of Group A with just one point to their name.
“Vietnamese love futsal and they are a good competitive side in the ASEAN region but when we go outside the ASEAN region, we struggle because we are physically inferior to the other Asian countries,” said Gargelli, who is also the chief coach of the Vietnam national Futsal side.
“There are two ways to move forward for the Vietnamese club and national futsal,” the Florence-born coach added. “We must create a league which is well spread in the country with an increased number of teams which will maximise the number of matches in the season.
“There is another way which is about working at the elite level. Since futsal is played all over Vietnam, a massive scouting would give us a pool of 25-30 physically strong players whom we can train to make good futsal players later. For me personally, this is more viable.”
The other ASEAN team in the AFC Futsal Club Championship this year is GH Bank RBAC of Thailand. They also finished their campaign at the bottom of Group B of the meet with just one point from three matches.
