Vietnam U23 and the order to tear the Philippines' net: When goals are a test of patience

On Vietnam U23's training ground in Nagoya, it rains. The ball rolls slower, short passes become harder to read, and the forwards face conditions close to a real September afternoon in Japan. Across a series of finishing drills, the conversion rate is not high. Nobody celebrates.

I have sat through hundreds of sessions like this one during my career. What I learned after many years is not how a ball finds the net, but how a single session exposes a team's real problem. When one striker keeps missing in the rain, it may simply be the pitch. When the entire front line misses together, it is a different signal.

The order to "tear the net" of the Philippines was issued ahead of the group-stage match in the men's football tournament at Asiad 2026. In commentary circles, I am used to hearing phrases like this. They sound powerful. But the question I want to ask is not whether the team should attack, but whether it is solving the right problem.

One point and one test

Vietnam U23 enters the second matchday of Group C with exactly one point, after a 1-1 draw with Kuwait. Uzbekistan U23 crushed the Philippines U23 5-1 in the other fixture, putting themselves top of the group with a plus-four goal difference. Kuwait and Vietnam share one point each. The Philippines sit bottom with a minus-four goal difference.

Reading the table after one matchday is not enough to conclude anything. But it is enough to draw the road. Vietnam need to beat the Philippines to enter the final matchday against Uzbekistan with control of their own fate. Without a win, the Uzbekistan match becomes a battle in which even a draw guarantees nothing. That is why the coaching staff used the phrase "tear the net".

There is a detail I want to hold on to: in the Kuwait draw, Vietnam U23 created many chances but scored only once. This is not a stray observation. It is the centre of the story. Because if a team creates few chances and scores few goals, the problem is attacking construction. But if a team creates many chances and still scores few goals, the problem lies in the finish.

Coach Dinh Hong Vinh and his staff reviewed the footage and focused on capitalising on opportunities and finishing efficiency. Reviewing footage is not a lack of trust; it is a way of respecting the truth. They saw what the audience saw too: the ball is not going where it needs to go.

But that is only half of the story.

Three layers of the finishing problem

When a team prepares for a match it must win, three layers of problems tend to appear at once. The first is technical: whether the striker's foot is accurate enough under the specific conditions of the game. The second is structural: whether the team generates the kind of chances that suit its players. The third is psychological: whether the team stays calm enough to convert chances into goals as the pressure rises.

The Kuwait match exposed problems in the first and third layers. The Philippines match will test the second.

The reason lies in how the Philippines may set up. After losing 5-1 to Uzbekistan, a young team usually has two options: keep playing open and accept the risk, or collapse into a shell to protect its pride. For a team that has conceded five goals, the second option is more likely. The Philippines may build a low block, cede territory and wait for chances from counterattacks or set pieces.

This is an entirely different problem from Kuwait. Kuwait, from what I observed, played with a mid-block and left space behind its defensive line. Vietnam exploited that space and created chances. The Philippines, if they sit deep, will take that space away. The team will have to attack a wall instead of attacking space.

Attacking a wall demands different qualities. It demands off-the-ball movement, short-range combinations in tight areas, early crosses from the flanks, and set-piece situations. It also demands patience, because a low block does not collapse in the first ten minutes. It collapses after being worn down over seventy.

And this is where the rain in Nagoya becomes a genuine tactical variable, not just a weather detail.

A wet pitch and the trade-off

On a wet pitch, the ball rolls faster but is also harder to control. Short passes and small combinations in tight areas become harder to execute with precision. This is a trade-off the coaching staff needs to weigh when choosing their approach.

If the Philippines sit deep and the pitch is wet, trying to break through with short passing could be a mistake. The ball may bounce up, players may slip, and combinations may break down before reaching the box. Under those conditions, a more direct approach could be more effective: long balls into the space behind the defensive line, early crosses from both flanks, and maximum use of set pieces.

This sounds simple, but it carries a deeper implication: when the pitch does not allow beautiful football, a team must choose between loyalty to its philosophy and winning the match. For a U23 side under pressure to win, I believe the second choice is more sensible. There is no reward for playing beautifully in a match where you need three points.

The paradox of the "tear the net" order

This is the part I want to spend the most time on, because it runs against the intuition of the majority.

The phrase "tear the net" carries a specific kind of pressure. It does not tell players to play better. It tells them to score a lot. Between those two messages there is a large gap.

When a young team walks into a match with an order to score heavily, a predictable psychological tendency appears: players rush. They shoot from positions where they should pass. They attempt balls that are too difficult instead of simple ones. They lose the patience required to break down a low block.

I have seen this many times in my career. A team needs a goal, and that very need makes it harder to score. A mistake is a footnote; only silence is a verdict. If Vietnam U23 score in the first thirty minutes, everything will be fine. But if they do not, psychology becomes a twelfth opponent, and it wears their own shirt.

This is why I do not entirely agree with the "tear the net" framing. In my view, the better message should be: stay patient, control the match, and goals will come from process rather than haste. But of course, I am not in the dressing room, and I do not know what the coaching staff conveyed behind the closed door.

The limits of youth and the rulebook

There is an aspect few mention when discussing this tournament: the age and squad-composition regulations at the Asian Games. In the men's football event, teams typically field U23 squads, sometimes with a small number of overage players under the organisers' rules. This creates an interesting imbalance between teams: some bring players with top-level experience, while others have only pure youth.

Vietnam U23 face a paradox: they need the mental maturity of a senior side, yet they carry the average age of an apprentice team. When you ask a twenty-year-old to "tear the net" of an opponent, you are asking him to do something even thirty-year-old strikers often fail to do under pressure.

The match can be paused, but the responsibility of the one holding the whistle cannot. And in this case, the ones responsible are the coaching staff. Their job is to turn pressure into structure, and an order into a plan. If they do that, Vietnam U23 will have a chance. If they do not, the team will struggle even against a theoretically weaker opponent.

Uzbekistan as a yardstick

No analysis of Group C can ignore Uzbekistan. Their 5-1 win over the Philippines makes them the benchmark of the group. This matters for two reasons.

First, it shows the Philippines can be beaten heavily. This creates a comparative pressure: if Uzbekistan scored five, why can't Vietnam score many? But that is a flawed argument. Goals are not a commodity comparable across matches. The Philippines may play a totally different tactic against Vietnam, especially after being wounded psychologically.

Second, it raises the question of goal difference. If Vietnam and the Philippines draw, or if Vietnam win by only one, the team's position before facing Uzbekistan will not improve much. In a group where goal difference can decide, scoring more is not merely an aesthetic goal. It is a tactical need.

Fans remember goals, I remember clauses. And the clause here says goal difference can be decisive when teams are level. That is why beating the Philippines is not just necessary. It needs to be done with a meaningful margin.

What needs to happen

The Philippines match will not be decided by whether Vietnam U23 attack more or less. It will be decided by whether the team can convert chances into goals under difficult circumstances. That is a different, and harder, problem than the Kuwait match.

If I had to make a prediction, I would say the match will be settled in the first thirty minutes of the second half. The Philippines, having absorbed pressure in the first half, may fade or lose organisation. If Vietnam keep their patience until that moment, chances will come. If the team lets the "tear the net" mentality control them, they may lose the very chances they are seeking.

It once took me three months to understand that a correct decision is not always a beautiful one. For Vietnam U23, an ugly win against the Philippines will be worth far more than a beautiful draw. Football in short tournaments is always like this: the result is king, and the process is only a servant.

What I want to see from Vietnam U23 is not a perfect match. It is a team that has learned from the Kuwait draw, knows how to control the tempo, knows how to stay patient against an opponent that may defend, and knows how to take fewer but more precious chances. Youth football always brings costly lessons. Whether today's lesson is remembered tomorrow, or forgotten as so many times before, is something no league table can answer for us.