From Soviet Football to Southeast Asian Glory: The Red Thread Through Vietnam's Football Journey

Kashima, on a September night, when the final whistle blew and Yuma Suzuki celebrated in the arms of his teammates, I recalled another story — remembering how distant Vietnamese people, in a previous generation, once stood on the shoulders of Soviet football giants. Football pitches have invisible threads that cross borders and time. That thread, weaving from Moscow, from Kiev, from Tbilisi, has reached Hanoi, reaching the victories that Vietnamese fans have recently enjoyed in absolute jubilation. Vietnamese football today, with the titles of ASEAN Cup 2026, SEA Games 2026, 2026, 2026, and its standing at the AFC U23 Asian Cup, did not appear overnight. It is the crystallization of a long journey, where the tactical principles and training philosophies of a football nation that once dominated Europe decades ago were absorbed, distilled, and transformed into a unique identity by generations of Vietnamese coaches. This is not merely a story of borrowing. This is a story of passing the torch, a living legacy that still shapes every movement of the ball, every generation of players. Looking back at Soviet football history, one cannot help but marvel at the heights they reached. During their golden era from the 1960s to the 1980s, the Soviet Union elevated their football to a continental level. Reaching the finals of the European Championship (Euro) in 2026, 2026, 2026, and 2026, the Soviet Union proved to be a true football empire. Winning Euro 2026 opened a period of prosperity. They possessed legends like goalkeeper Lev Yashin — dubbed the 'Black Spider' for his miraculous saves — and Rinat Dasayev, a worthy successor with a modern and composed goalkeeping style. Not to mention names like Valery Voronin with his excellent tactical vision in midfield, or Eduard Streltsov, possessing rare strength and exquisite technique, a striker likened to the uncrowned king of Soviet football. Soviet football, therefore, set a benchmark of technique and physicality. The diversity within Soviet football schools is what made it great. While Dinamo Moscow was renowned for short, technical, fluid passing combinations, elegant like waltzes, Spartak Moscow brought a different school: long over-the-top passes, fiery pressing, a purely 'European' style of football with power and speed. This tactical diversity and depth, these opposing schools that both achieved perfection, became the core concepts that Vietnamese experts and coaches trained during this period memorized, learned, and passed on. There were generations of Vietnamese players and sports administrators who went to the Soviet Union to study. They arrived at a major football nation with admiration for its physicality, fighting spirit, and a structured training system. Notably, Trần Duy Long, one of Vietnam's leading experts, spent time studying there. And especially, Trần Quốc Tuấn — the son of the late Minister Trần Duy Hưng, a man with an intense passion for the round ball — spent time studying at the Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture (also known as Malakhovka University) in the 1980s. It was through these individuals who passed through Russia, through the textbooks and lesson plans they brought back, that a wellspring of knowledge was opened, and a 'red thread' was woven. Sitting in his office at the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) headquarters in Hanoi, looking out at young players, Trần Quốc Tuấn has demonstrated a deep understanding of the principles he absorbed from the Soviet Union. The first principle is the quality of the domestic league. No national football can develop sustainably without a strong national competition. The V.League is the foundation of the national team. A league with high competitiveness, squad depth, and systematic investment from clubs will be the cradle that produces quality players for the national team. This is a basic philosophy, seemingly known to all, but implementing it consistently, making it a central pillar of development strategy, requires vision and courage. The second principle, and perhaps the most important, that Vietnamese football has learned from the Soviet model, is the emphasis on football schools. In the Soviet development philosophy, the youth training system was built upon the system of sports schools, from district-level talent classes to city-level ones. School football is the foundation for every club. I have witnessed this in Japan, where high school teams compete in national tournaments with fervent atmosphere. I believe Trần Quốc Tuấn, with what he learned from Russia, has breathed new life into Vietnam's school football system. Investing systematically in youth age groups like U15, U17, U19, rather than sporadic movements, reflects the understanding that to get sweet fruit, you must nurture the roots. These principles from 1980s Russia remain as valid today, and we are beginning to harvest the first sweet fruits. The consequence of persistently adhering to that philosophy is a series of resounding successes in recent years, elevating Vietnamese football to the top position in Southeast Asia and making its mark on the Asian stage. Under Trần Quốc Tuấn's leadership as VFF Chairman, the Vietnamese national team won the ASEAN Cup 2026 and repeated this achievement in 2026 — an astonishing consistency at the regional level. Beyond the national team, youth teams have also achieved resounding SEA Games success, with three consecutive gold medals in 2026, 2026, and 2026, affirming Vietnam's number one status for youth football in the region. The U23 teams have also shown superiority with three Southeast Asian U23 Championship titles. Notably, on the continental stage, Vietnam's U23 team caused an earthquake by finishing as runners-up at the 2026 U23 Asian Cup, a historic feat, and continued to demonstrate progress with a third-place finish at the 2026 U23 Asian Cup. Golden generations continue to succeed one another. Look at how players like Nguyễn Quang Hải, Nguyễn Công Phượng, or Phạm Tuấn Hải handle the ball. In them, I see a harmonious blend of Asian dexterity and technique with a clearly improved physical foundation, enabling them to cope with ever-increasing match intensity. The openness of Russian players themselves: skillful technique, good physical build and stamina, has been acknowledged. When I follow Vietnam's matches at the ASEAN Cup, I see no disconnect between the defensive line and the attack, between the lines. A quick, decisive transition. I recall a conversation with a veteran Vietnamese commentator, Mr. Dương Vũ Lâm, who has spent his life observing football cultures. He pointed out that Russian players possess both skillful individual technique and good physicality thanks to training in Europe's elite football environment. It was inevitable that Vietnamese football would learn from that model. However, if we only stop at glorifying the past, we will miss important signals for the future. The 'tactical map' of modern football has changed rapidly. The physical, short-passing and long-ball football of the Soviet Union in the 1980s now competes with modern possession-based philosophies, pioneered by Barcelona and Spain, and later variants of high pressing with PPDA metrics calculated to the finest detail. Does a tactical solution from the past still hold value in the present? This question haunts me. There is a reality that in Vietnam's current success, specific data like xG (expected goals), possession percentage, or PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action) are rarely mentioned. We talk about spirit, tactics, discipline, but is there too little data to prove this success rests on solid foundations, or if it is merely the transient brilliance of a talented generation of players? Over-reliance on a glorious historical narrative, however built upon living witnesses like Trần Quốc Tuấn or Trần Duy Long, carries potential risks when modern football environments demand a more data-driven and analytical approach. Is Vietnamese football standing on the shoulders of Soviet giants, only to one day, when the wind of memory softens, need to stand on its own feet, with an identity named Vietnam, not a copy of any other school? The worry about relying too heavily on legacy without creativity and innovation is something any lover of Vietnamese football can feel. Nevertheless, standing in Kashima that night, witnessing how the Japanese cherish every moment of a match, I remembered how the Vietnamese cherish what they learned from their Soviet teachers. 'A match only ends when people stop remembering it.' And Vietnamese football has made millions of fans continuously remember those victories, remember how they won. It was a night that made me understand that football is never just a game; it is an inheritance and a promise. From that perspective, the story of Vietnamese football and its Russian legacy is not merely a story of the past. 'Each player is a universe, tactics are just the orbit.' And Vietnam, with orbits charted from the great football schools of the last century, is gradually finding its own gravity. That gravity is named Vietnamese identity. Will 20 years from now see a generation of players with a more modern 'possession' style, or will they still wield long passes as sharp as a blade from the Spartak Moscow of old? The answer depends on our own evolution. 'Empty stadium, the ball knows how to cry' and those days without spectators taught me that a football nation needs an internal anchor. And for Vietnam, that anchor is fortified from a historical depth with crucial links carrying the blood of Soviet football. I, here in Japan, am just a writer. But I believe these stories need to be told with a warm heart and a lucid mind. Let us cherish what has been learned, confront the gaps of the present with honesty, and always nurture the aspiration to reach further. We are witnessing a golden era of Vietnamese football, not by chance, but within a conscious current, invigorated by a valuable legacy. And, from the perspective of someone who has spent his career watching the football world move, I believe acknowledging the footprints of predecessors is a way to prepare for the future. This is only the beginning.