Vietnam Team joins the strictest bubble in Japan
After a journey with a total length of more than 16 hours, Vietnam Team has also settled down at the Metropolitan Tokyo, Japan. Since arriving at Narita airport, head coach Park Hang-seo’s team have had to enter the closed bubble with the strictest principle compared to all the past matches in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Asian 3rd Qualifier.
28/03/2022 09:24:11
Due to the obligation to comply with the Japanese Government’s regulations for the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic without any exception, despite the initiative to prepare all relevant documents in advance. According to the health requirements of the host country, it took more than 3 hours for Vietnam Team members to receive RT-PCR test results to ensure eligibility for entry.
The RT-PCR test was performed at the airport and the team faced the first difficulty when there was 1 positive case for Covid-19. That’s interpreter Le Huy Khoa. According to the regulations of the Japanese Government, Mr. Le Huy Khoa was taken to isolation at a hotel different from the hotel of the team. The confirmed cases of close contact on the flight are also required to avoid close contact with the remaining members until the results of the next PCR test are available. Even the team’s dining room is divided by partitions to limit the spread. This not only makes the life of the whole team very inconvenient, but also greatly affects the professional work, because in principle the F1 cases up to this point have not been able to attend the general meeting of the team. Besides, the absence of Mr.Le Huy Khoa also greatly affects the communication of head coach Park Hang-seo and players.
Previously, based on the very strict Covid-19 prevention and control principles from Japan, VFF also took necessary measures to minimize the consequences in case of a member infected with Covid-19, especially the issue related to the force. Specifically, for the move from Vietnam to Japan, VFF worked with Vietnam Airlines to arrange seats for team members according to the principle of “zigzag”, each member is separated from each other row of seats. The arrangement of rooms at the hotel while in Vietnam is also calculated based on the players’ positions on the field so that in the unfortunate situation that a player is positive for covid-19, there will still be enough players in the start list. When going to Japan, each player is in a separate room.
At 5:00 pm local time (15:00 Vietnam time), the team starts the first practice session on the training ground of Saitama Stadium, located about 40 minutes by bus from the hotel.
