Vietnamese soccer fans have dubbed national coach Park Hang-seo a “wizard” following a rare string of successes by the nation’s “Golden Star” team.
Thousands of people late on Monday night took to the streets of Hanoi to celebrate an otherwise minor event in international soccer — a 1-0 victory over Syria in the quarter-finals of the Asian Games.
“I’m so pumped up, I kept crying all night long,” fan Nguyen Hoang Ha said on Facebook. “Thank you Mr Park Hang-seo.”
Photo: AP
A second Facebook user was more effusive.
“Park Hang-seo is Vietnam’s soccer wizard. He changed players and predicted the game so sharply,” Nguyen Son wrote.
“I just wish wizard Park Hang-seo sensei was Vietnamese,” another fan added.
Park might be South Korean, but he has given Vietnam, who have never qualified for the World Cup as a unified nation, their first taste of success on the international stage.
When he led Vietnam to the final of the under-23 Asian Cup in January, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to wave flags and toot horns.
Those scenes were repeated on Monday, when Park’s side beat Syria to earn the unified nation’s first Asian Games semi-final, spurring calls for the 59-year-old to be granted Vietnamese citizenship.
In a cruel test of his patriotism, Vietnam’s semi-final today will be against South Korea.
“Everyone knows I love my hometown and I love my nation, but I am currently the head coach of the Vietnam team,” Park told reporters. “We want to beat South Korea and get into the final.”
Park’s success has been followed closely from South Korea, where fans have joked that he has “done enough” and should “stop winning” to pave the way for a South Korean victory.
He has earned the nickname “Ssal-dink” in Korean, which translates to “Rice Noodle Hiddink” and is derived from a blend of the names of a popular Vietnamese dish and national hero Guus Hiddink.
Dutch coach Hiddink, with Park as his assistant, led South Korea on a fairytale run to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup.
As for South Korea’s Son Heung-min, the stakes for today’s semi-final are even higher: South Korean law states that every able-bodied man must report for national service for 21 months before their 28th birthday.
Aged 26, time is fast running out for the Tottenham Hotspur forward to gain the exemption offered to all Olympic medalists or Asian Games champions.
“We wish our boys a great performance, cool heads and warm hearts,” Vietnam soccer fan Khanh Duy Phan said on Facebook. “And we hope Son Heung-min enjoys his military service.”
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