Vietnam's football recently saw excellent achievements of U16 national football team (qualifies for the quarterfinal of AFC U-16 Championship) and U19 national football team (makes FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017). These magnificent results include the great but silent contributions of two German professionals, Technical Director Gede and Fitness Coach Martin Forkel.
Vietnam’s football recently saw excellent achievements of U16 national football team (qualifies for the quarterfinal of AFC U-16 Championship) and U19 national football team (makes FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017). These magnificent results include the great but silent contributions of two German professionals, Technical Director Gede and Fitness Coach Martin Forkel.
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| Fitness Coach Martin Forkel |
At the recent continental playgrounds, both U16 and U19 showed good physical strength. Although these Vietnamese athletes do not have titanic physiques like other athletes who come from the East Asia, West Asia or Australia, they were not physically inferior to the opponents. They energetically tackled the ball throughout the games, which partly helped them to have fairly even matches with the opposing teams.
The physical strength has been considered as a weak point of Vietnam’s football teams. Vietnamese athletes have often been uncompetitive in comparison with the opponents in terms of physique, speed, and tackle. They have often got tired after playing with intensity during the first 65 to 70 minutes of the match. Therefore, improving the athletes’ physical strength has been one of the main targets of Vietnam’s football.
With the aim to strengthen Vietnam’s football teams, Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) hired and Martin Forkel, experienced professionals from Germany, to work as the technical director and fitness coach respectively. With the understanding of Asia’s football and knowledge of modern football of a German, Gede contributed greatly to the achievements of Vietnam’s two young football teams, U16 and especially U19. This could be seen through the advancements that Vietnam U19 performed in the 2016 AFC U19 Championship. The athletes of Vietnam did not lose the confidence when facing strong teams; demonstrated their strengths and surprised the opponents with their improvisation.
Fitness Coach Martin Forkel also had remarkable contributions to the outstanding results of U19 Vietnam. Thanks to the new and interesting physical training methods of Forkel, the fitness of U19 footballers have been improved and strengthened efficiently. Besides, this German coach applied modern technologies and provided good nutrition in order to enhance the physical strength of Vietnamese athletes.
The silent contributions of the two German professionals have played a significant role in the recent excellent achievements of Vietnam U16 and U19 and have been highly appreciated by VFF and Head Coach of U19 Hoang Anh Tuan. Gede and Martin Forkel were also appointed to accompany with Head Coach Nguyen Huu Thang in order to help Vietnam’s national football team to perform well at the upcoming AFF Cup. Additionally, Gede was assigned to work with other professionals to re-systematize the training for young athletes and build up Vietnam’s distinctive way of playing.
Binh Giang (Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper)
Translated by H.N
