The Unusual Wings of V.League: Why Vietnamese Football Needs Traditional Crossers

At 5:15 a.m., the No. 3 training pitch of the Nha Trang Youth Training Center was still covered in a thin fog. I stood from afar, counting each rhythm of the ball as a young player continuously crossed the ball toward a flag post. That young winger – named Le Duy Thanh – later became one of the 'swallows' of Vietnamese football. But that morning, there were no spectators, no cameras. Only the sound of boots on grass and heavy breathing. At 62, I am not yet bored. Because to me, the truest pulse is not in the stands, but under the feet of those early training sessions. The V.League 2026 has just passed 12 rounds. On the standings, the leading teams all use inverted wingers, tasked with cutting inside to finish. This trend comes from Europe, brought by foreign coaches. But when I looked closer, I noticed something odd: mid-table and lower-table teams like Sanna Khanh Hoa, Hai Phong, and Becamex Binh Duong are winning with classic crosses. They do not have enough 'seagull' inverters, but they possess precise crossing feet. Khanh Hoa's head coach, Mr. Vo Dinh Tan, once told me: 'Football is not just about dribbling past players. A quality cross can squeeze the entire defense.' In the last two months, I spent 27 training sessions watching the three aforementioned teams. I recorded the number of crosses, the number of runs to receive the ball in the second line, and measured the heart rate of wingers using sports watches. The results did not match the heat maps published by data sites. The heat maps showed they often appeared in the middle, but in reality their most dangerous attacks originated from the wings. My own data from 12 Khanh Hoa matches showed: on average, they cross 24 times per match, the highest in the league. Of those, 38% of the crosses found the exact position of the central striker, creating 12 clear chances – equivalent to 2.8 xG. This figure is significantly higher than teams using inverted wingers. Their heat maps, as I said, are just 'new fortune-telling'. It hides the real role of players in a tactical system. A left winger does not need to cut inside to score; he only needs to dribble past the right-back and deliver a low cross. I have seen Le Duy Thanh, a player once labeled 'past his prime', execute 214 passes in a training session in 2026, but now he is the king of crosses with 73 successful crosses. Not only Khanh Hoa, but Hai Phong also impresses with two 'veteran' full-backs who always push forward. They are not afraid of contact, and any foreign center-back must tremble when they cross from both wings. I realize these traditional teams play simpler but more effective football. They make fewer horizontal passes to keep possession, instead playing long balls and quick crosses forward. My statistics show that these teams have a success rate of passes into the final third that is 15% higher than the inverted wing group. This, in turn, creates a big difference on the scoreboard. One evening at Lach Tray Stadium, I witnessed Hai Phong defeat the top team with two goals from wide crosses. The fans cheered, but the most impressive moment for me was the Hai Phong wingers quietly wiping their boots after the match. One of them told me: 'People criticize me for lacking technique, but I know where the ball will go.' I noted that detail in my journal. When the stadium is empty, we clap from afar to remind ourselves that the heart does not need distance. The irony is that all television stations and major newspapers still worship inverted wingers as symbols of modernity. They replay those cut-inside-and-shoot moves. But data shows that goals from such situations account for only 9% of all V.League goals. Conversely, crosses and runs into the landing area created 41% of goals. So why do the media insist that inverted wingers are the future? Perhaps because flashy solo moves are more likely to generate million-view videos. But football is not just entertainment; it is about making the right decisions on the pitch. If Vietnamese teams keep buying inverted wingers and let them lose their way, they will erase an entire crossing culture that has made Southeast Asian football distinctive. To better understand the difference, let me cite a specific match. In Round 10, at Hang Day Stadium, Hanoi FC hosted Sanna Khanh Hoa. Hanoi FC fielded a lineup with three inverted wingers, constantly moving into the half-space between opposing defenders. They dominated possession with 68%, but it took them until the 74th minute to register their first shot on target. Meanwhile, Khanh Hoa had only 32% possession, but every time they attacked down the wings, they troubled Hanoi's center-backs. The only goal came from a cross by Le Duy Thanh; Khanh Hoa's center-forward positioned himself intelligently and headed home. After the match, a VTV analyst told me that Hanoi FC needs to 'diversify their play', but I think the issue is not diversity, but rather they have lost the balance between inverted and wide play. Football is a game of space, and if you only attack in one zone, you will be figured out. In this summer transfer window, Vietnamese clubs spent more than $12 million to acquire strikers and attacking midfielders, but few clubs sought a specialist winger who could cross. That reflects a lack of understanding of tactical data. I have watched scouting sessions in Japan, where sporting directors evaluate players based on successful crosses and wide positioning. But in Vietnam, people still prefer players with flashy individual technique. There is a paradox: technique without effectiveness is just beautiful dance steps, but football does not award points for the difficulty of a move. After a media shock, people do not need another perspective; they need a shoulder to lean on. I am here to listen to coaches who are criticized for outdated tactics but are producing consistent results. Today, as I write this article, the V.League is entering its final stretch. Teams at the bottom need points. I believe those who remain patient with traditional wings will reap the rewards. Watch Khanh Hoa: they just signed a young winger from the youth team – he is only 1.65m tall, but he made nine crosses in one training session and never hit the flag post once. Sounds boring? But to me, that is the music of football. After all, time does not make a team older; it only thickens the story. And the story of the V.League lies in those birds still flying in the early mist.