The image of Coach Park Hang-seo hunched over in despair after Việt Nam's 2-0 defeat to Thailand in the first leg of the AFF Cup semi-final is not a familiar one to Vietnamese fans

With the new Omicron strain of the coronavirus wreaking havoc in the UK, and proving to be far more contagious that previous variants, something really has to give.

Hoàng Thị Mỹ Tâm won three gold medals for Việt Nam at the Asian Karate Championship which finished on December 22 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Việt Nam have in all to do in the second leg of the AFF Cup semi-final, after losing 2-0 to Thailand in the first bout at the Singapore National Stadium on Thursday evening.

Despite being affected by COVID-19 restrictions, the Tokyo 2020 Games were held successfully last summer amid hardships due to the prolonged pandemic. It proved that sports has not lost its ability to bring global communities together in the spirit of sportspersonship and unity, and sent messages of perseverance, hope and resilience.

Coach Park Hang-seo is confident Việt Nam will beat Thailand in the AFF Cup semi-finals’ first leg match, providing his players fulfil their potential. 

They say good things come in small packages, and that’s certainly the case with athlete Nguyễn Thị Hằng.

Hindsight is 20-20, but even a blind man could see that only beating Laos 2-0 is what left Việt Nam in this position and in retrospect, the 0-0 draw with Indonesia is less of a disappointing result than it felt on the night.