The schooling of young generation of goalkeepers in Vietnam has become shrunken, especially the in the last ten years, and as a result, first choice keepers of Vietnamese national teams have failed to draw confidence among fans.

International goalkeeper of Vietnam, Duong Hong Son

Have clubs from the central region as Binh Dinh, Danang and Nghe An created trademark in training famous goalkeepers Truong Van Loi, Nguyen Van Cuong, Vo Van Hanh and Tran Minh Quang in 1990s, currently no young names are able to replace them.

High-profile errors by keepers Duong Hong Son and Bui Tan Truong at the 2010 Suzuki Cup in December causing the national side slumping to an early exit meant an alarm for Vietnam in avoiding more losses in the future.

In the past 10 years, Vietnam have coordinated with the Asian Football Confederation in holding dozens of courses for coaches but none of them for goalkeeping coaches.

“For Olympic teams in Vietnam, positions in the attacking and midfield lines draw more heed than that for goalkeeper,” said Nguyen Van Phung, goalkeeping coach and former international keeper.

Few local keepers are taller than 1.8m, meanwhile the height, which is a disadvantage of Vietnamese footballers at international competition, is one of top requirements for a qualified keeper, he added.

To tackle the scarcity, most clubs now field a first choice goalkeeper from overseas, including the arrival of foreign players as Brazilian-born Fabio Santos, Michal Syhavy from Ukraine, Filip Madzovski from Macedonia.

But it seems that they are doing more harm to Vietnamese football rather than helping the sport.

Among a total of 12 teams playing Vietnam’s top-tier V-League in last season, six of them employ foreign keepers.

The shortage of local goalkeepers is worthy a big concern for the Vietnam Football Federation in aiming to improve achievements for the national side at international arena.