The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) homepage has released a list of stars expected to shine at the 2023 AFC U17 Championship finals held in Thailand.
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| Captain of Vietnam U17 team Nguyen Cong Phuong. (Source: VTC) |
The player of the Vietnam U17 team chosen by AFC is captain Nguyen Cong Phuong.
The AFC homepage wrote before the tournament officially started: "This midfielder promises to have a successful career after leading Vietnam U17 to the final round of the AFC U17 Championship with an excellent performance."
“In addition to the leadership qualities of a captain, this midfielder also contributes goals. Vietnam will put their trust in Cong Phuong in the goal of having a successful tournament."
In the U17 Asian qualifiers, the midfielder born in 2006 shone brightly to help his team advance to the top of the table with 9 absolute points after 3 wins, scoring 12 goals and not conceding any.
Captain Nguyen Cong Phuong contributed two goals, including the goal that broke the deadlock to open a big victory for U17 Vietnam against U17 Thailand in the decisive match of Group F.
After helping U17 Vietnam advance, Nguyen Cong Phuong continued to shine and scored a goal to help the U17 Viettel team defeat U17 Hong Linh Ha Tinh 4-2 in the final match of the 2023 National U17 Championship.
The achievement helped U17 Viettel win the national U17 championship for the second time after winning the championship in 2018.
Most recently, Cong Phuong also played impressively during the training trip to Qatar and Japan of Vietnam U17 to prepare for the 2023 AFC U17 finals. The midfielder from Hai Duong scored a goal in the 2-0 victory over Qatar U17.
Not only Cong Phuong, AFC's homepage also highly appreciated U17 Vietnam after keeping a clean sheet in the qualifying round.
Besides U17 Vietnam, 3 other teams also have this achievement: U17 Japan (+15), U17 Yemen (+18) and U17 Tajikistan (+5).
AFC's homepage wrote: "Vietnam U17, Japan U17, Yemen U17 and Tajikistan U17 have shown solid defensive ability in the qualifying round. They are the ones who won tickets to the 2023 AFC U17 Championship without conceding a single goal."
AFC also praised Vietnam and other teams including Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Australia, Tajikistan, Iran and Uzbekistan for winning all qualifying matches.
In the 2023 AFC U17 qualifiers held last October, the Vietnam U17 team played impressively to defeat U17 Taipei (China) 4-0, U17 Nepal 5-0 and U17 Thailand 3-0.
At the 2023 AFC U17 Championship finals, the Vietnamese team is in Group D with the U17 Japan, U17 Uzbekistan and U17 India teams.
According to the schedule, coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team will play all 3 group stage matches at Thammasat Stadium.
Japan U17 and Uzbekistan U17 are two of the unbeaten teams in the qualifying round. Notably, Japan U17 are still the current champions of the tournament, having won the tournament in Malaysia in 2018 (not held in 2020).
In this year's tournament, teams compete in a round-robin format to determine rankings in each group. The first and second teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
The four winning teams in the quarter-finals will advance to the semi-finals and also qualify as Asian representatives to the U17 World Cup finals.
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