When the independence day becomes a day to watch a World Cup game: the feelings of Vietnam before its maiden appearance in the final phase
Only a day later that the encounter between Saudi Arabia and Vietnam will begin as part of the final round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification in Asia. The match is just a small part of the much larger campaign that would span for over a year to decide the final four, with a fifth to be added in case of playoffs. Mentioning the game between Saudi Arabia and Vietnam surprisingly startled my feeling. I have always been somewhat unlucky in predicting a winner in football, and again, I sensed something bad about Vietnam's perpetration for the 2022 World Cup run. Indeed, and worse, the defence suffered most of the losses, many of Vietnam's key defenders that joined the squad since the 2018 U-23 Asian Championship second-place finish had been absent due to injuries. Not to mention the V-League season of 2021 was officially cancelled due to failure to guarantee bubble travel, resulting in a great loss of Vietnamese football hope during the COVID-19 pandemic; the third wave with t...