Vietnam U21 Volleyball: Lessons for the future

"Phenomenon" of the tournament

At the 2025 U21 Volleyball World Championship, U21 Vietnam is not highly rated in Group A. Besides Indonesia, the opponents of coach Nguyen Trong Linh and his team are all ranked high in the world rankings, including: Argentina, Serbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

However, Lan Vy and her teammates continuously created surprises. After defeating the host team 3-0 in the opening match, U21 Vietnam created an earthquake against Serbia - the 8th ranked team in the world, then successively defeated Canada (21st ranked in the world), Puerto Rico (15th ranked in the world), and only lost 1 match in the group stage against Argentina (7th ranked in the world).

U21 Vietnam defeated the world's 8th ranked team Serbia. Photo: Volleyball World

The victories of U21 Vietnam were not due to luck. Coach Trong Linh's team had the best preparation for the tournament.

The young athletes have just competed at the National U23 tournament and before that, the VTV Cup 2025. In addition to professional issues, the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV) does not assign performance targets to the team, but only requires the athletes to make the highest effort and actively learn from their opponents.

Thanks to their relaxed spirit and "know yourself, know your enemy" style of play, U21 Vietnam continuously created surprises. Even when the young athletes encountered an incident where they were penalized with losing 4 matches and one player was eliminated from the tournament, they still had 2 more victories against strong opponents Egypt and Dominican Republic, only losing to Chile in the match for 17th-20th place.

Vietnamese girls continue to surprise. Photo: Volleyball World

Joining the tournament with the main goal of "learning", but U21 Vietnam became a "phenomenon". If they had not been unexpectedly punished by FIVB (losing 4 matches), the Vietnamese girls would have been in the top 16 strongest teams of the tournament, and could have made a difference.

Regret and hope

The journey of U21 Vietnam at the world tournament ended with a 3-0 victory over the Dominican Republic. If not counting the penalty (reason still unknown) from FIVB, coach Trong Linh and his team have 6 wins and 2 losses.

It's a pity for U21 Vietnam when they hold a historic ticket to the round of 16 and could go further in the tournament, but non-professional problems make the Vietnamese girls lose the opportunity to compete with the world's top teams.

The unfortunate incident happened to U21 Vietnam. Photo: Volleyball World

Not only regretful, U21 Vietnam is also hurt by the carelessness and irresponsibility related to the "typing error" incident of the Organizing Committee. This is an unbelievable mistake that happened in a big playground like the world championship.

But above all, the coaching staff and young Vietnamese athletes encouraged each other to compete with the highest responsibility, for the sake of the flag. Coach Trong Linh said that no matter what category the team competes in, it is still considered a final match, helping the players gain more experience to mature.

In terms of expertise, U21 Vietnam has been playing more and more flexibly and effectively. Striker Dang Thi Hong, with a modest height of 1m72, has extremely dangerous and stable attacks, leading the scoring list in the tournament after 4 matches.

After the 19-year-old spiker was banned from competing, U21 Vietnam still did well in the attack with key players like Bich Hue and Anh Thao. Even young middle blocker Le Thuy Linh had some shining matches, or 17-year-old main blocker Quynh Huong was assigned to defense but still became the spiker with the most points in the matches against Chile and the Dominican Republic, while setter Khanh Huyen and Libero Kieu Vy showed impressive performance.

U21 Vietnam had an emotional tournament. Photo: Volleyball World

Although there are still some problems with step 1 or physical strength, it can be seen that U21 Vietnam is balanced in all positions, the athletes have even levels so there is no "unbalance" between the main and reserve squads.

U21 Vietnam is the next generation for the national team, and with what they have shown in the tournament, Ha Kieu Vy and her teammates, if they continue to be nurtured and trained, they have a great future. Hopefully, after this tournament, in addition to what they have achieved, the Vietnam Volleyball Federation and the U21 team need to learn lessons to avoid repeating unfortunate incidents, and continue to invest heavily in youth volleyball.

Vietnamnet.vn