Facing East Timor, what new look will the Vietnam national team unveil?

During the friendly held at Thai Nguyen recently, supporters saw a daring game plan by Kim Sang Sik when he introduced Dinh Bac and maintained the three naturalized forwards.

The Vietnam team operated with an extremely attacking formation, using up to four strikers and two attacking midfielders, not to mention wingers Doan Van Hau and Truong Tien Anh pushing high to the byline.

That detail recalls a mini version of France at the 2026 World Cup, where numerous attacking stars were lined up together. The confidence for Kim to operate this "version" comes from a squad considered the strongest in over 30 years.

For the first time, the Brazilian-born trio of Nguyen Xuan Son (Rafaelson), Do Hoang Hen (Hendrio), and Nguyen Tai Loc (Geovane) all started together. Their presence not only solves the physicality and dueling issues but also brings superior finishing quality, a chronic weakness of domestic football.

When the naturalized stars drew all the opponent's attention, top local players like Nguyen Quang Hai and Nguyen Hoang Duc were truly "liberated". Quang Hai no longer had to drop deep to help defend; instead, he had space to move freely, connecting the attacking positions with quick one-two combinations. Meanwhile, Hoang Duc played more directly, becoming an effective bridge to circulate the ball from the back to the front. The result was four goals scored in various ways: long-range shots, wide attacks, and central combinations.

However, behind the glamour of the 4-0 scoreline in a match that was "no different from a training session" against a much weaker opponent, observers still aren't truly at ease about the team's structural integrity.

It's easy to see that the current style of play still relies heavily on individual brilliance and natural chemistry among the stars. While we can be confident in the attack's ability to score thanks to individual quality, the open question is: when facing stronger opponents who know how to press and counter-attack well, how will Vietnam's gameplay be so that those stars operate as a cohesive unit, especially during transitions?

Ironically, coach Kim Sang Sik himself had shown the ability to build a clear system at the U23 level. The U23 Vietnam under him, through their performance at the Asian U23 Championship earlier this year, was highly praised by experts not for having outstanding individuals, but for a distinctive playing style: coordinated pressing in lines, quick transitions, and chemistry developed through long-term training together.

That version was considered suitable for the physique and football mindset of the Vietnamese: no need for superior physicality, but having the right personnel for the tactical system.

At the national team level, the challenge is much harder. Coach Kim Sang Sik does not have the luxury of selecting players according to a single philosophy; he must balance the experienced local players, the fast young talents, and the naturalized players with superior physicality.

Those three groups come from different tactical backgrounds, and merging them into a unified system is much harder than building a U23 team that is homogeneous in age and starting point.

Coach Kim Sang Sik still has one month to perfect the style of play based on the ASEAN Cup schedule that goes from easier to harder matches. As the Myanmar match showed, with the current squad, even if the tactics are not yet clear, the team is still capable of "crushing" any defense in Southeast Asia. But this is also the reason why the 2026 ASEAN Cup will be judged more critically than previous editions.

Nearly two years ago, with just one difference named Xuan Son, Vietnam rose to the top position in Southeast Asia. Now, the story is no longer about winning but about how to win, with what ideas, to show that maximizing the naturalization policy is the right choice in elevating the team's level. A clear tactical identity is the foundation for Vietnam to move forward to the Asian Cup and beyond.