Chance to score points for Vietnamese players

The Vietnam U23 team trained in Qatar to prepare for the match with U23 Kuwait.

Before the match, coach of the Vietnam U23 team Hoang Anh Tuan said:

“Our team is a relatively young team in this tournament. However, this will also be the future force of Vietnamese football, so this tournament will be a good opportunity for the players to gain experience, aiming for a position in the national team. We respect all opponents and playing with quality teams is a good opportunity. The players need to focus to show themselves and I believe they can.”

In fact, the sudden change of head coach of the national football team and the Vietnam U23 team recently caused the preparation of the force to not really be as expected by the new coach Hoang Anh Tuan.

He shared: “For the players, this will be a big challenge that they must overcome to mature. To set foot in the national team, the players need to play a lot, especially in tournaments like this. U23 Vietnam is ready after a long preparation process. I told my students to respect their opponents. Each match is a big lesson waiting, U23 Vietnam needs to learn to prepare for the future.”

The 16 teams that qualified for the final are all strong teams, even coach Hoang Anh Tuan couldn't help but wonder: "There are no weak teams in our group. The first match is always not easy, but we have completed our preparations. In football, before the final whistle, you can't predict the result. I hope all teams will perform well in the first round tomorrow."

Before the opening match, coach Hoang Anh Tuan eliminated four players, including: goalkeeper Tran Trung Kien, center back Nguyen Thanh Khai, Nguyen Duc Anh and defender Ha Van Phuong.

According to statistics, the U23 Vietnam team has the youngest average age (20, 21) and the shortest height (1m76).

However, apart from U23 Uzbekistan, the only team that has participated in all the final rounds of the AFC U23 Championship (six times) and is considered much stronger, the two remaining opponents, U23 Malaysia and U23 Kuwait, who are in the group of four second-placed teams with the best results, are considered "equal" opponents to U23 Vietnam.

In the opening match, U23 Kuwait was not too strong, they got the wild card ticket for the second-place team in the qualifying round even though they played against weak opponents U23 Macau (China) and U23 Timor Leste.

The Kuwait U23 team entered the finals after a series of seven consecutive matches without a win due to many reasons, including unresolved internal conflicts.

In the pre-match press conference, Kuwait U23 coach Emilio Peixe affirmed that this tournament is a preparation for the future of Kuwaiti football: “The teams in the same group are all opponents with a lot of experience in the tournament. Therefore, this will be a good opportunity for the players to develop. We have prepared for this tournament for more than a year. In football, everyone wants to win, so we will try to compete and show our best. The whole team is very excited to compete with the three remaining opponents in the group.”

* Before the match between U23 Vietnam and U23 Kuwait, at 8:00 p.m. on April 17 is the opening match of Group D between U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Malaysia.

In this year's tournament, the young team from Southeast Asia is considered the weakest in the group based on their poor performance in the tournament two years ago and recent matches at the regional and continental levels.

At the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, they were in the same group as Vietnam U23 and lost all three group stage matches, scoring only one goal. At the 2023 AFF U23 Championship, Malaysia U23 finished fourth, while Vietnam U23 won the championship.

Previously, in the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, in the “easy” group, they overcame two weaker teams, U23 Philippines and U23 Bangladesh, to make it to the tournament. Even in some recent friendly matches, U23 Malaysia did not perform very well with two losses.

However, in Group D, coach Juan Torres Garrido and his team are determined to win second place against two teams, U23 Vietnam and U23 Kuwait, which they consider to be on par with each other.

The ambition of U23 Malaysia is not too much and this can come true because football in this country has also had positive changes recently.

Their disadvantage is that they had to face the strong team of the continent, U23 Uzbekistan, in the opening match. If they can hold this opponent to a draw with a minimum loss or even get a point, it will be a great motivation for U23 Malaysia to "take on" U23 Vietnam and U23 Kuwait.

In contrast to their opponents, U23 Uzbekistan has prepared their squad quite carefully with the goal of reaching the semi-finals, even winning the championship with young stars such as: Diyor Kholmatov, Khusayin Norchaev, Alisher Odilov...

In the history of the tournament, the Central Asian team has reached the semi-finals three times in a row and was the champion in 2018 and runner-up in 2022. At the recent 19th ASIAD, their Olympic team (U23+3) won the Bronze Medal and most of the players of this team are also the core of the current U23 Uzbekistan team.

It can be said that coach Timur Kapadze's team is stable and in good form. According to experts, the superior level will bring a victory over U23 Malaysia, even with a difference in score and this is also the goal that U23 Uzbekistan is aiming for to have a favorable start.

* On the evening of April 16, Group B kicked off with a match between the U23 Japan and U23 China teams. As expected, the young Japanese team showed their superiority and less than 10 minutes after the ball started, they scored the opening goal, scored by Matsuki after a cross from his teammate on the right wing.

However, the dominance of U23 Japan did not last long, in the 17th minute, Nishio was sent off after the referee consulted VAR technology about his foul on a U23 Chinese player.

Despite playing with one less player, the "samurai" still controlled the game, both defending tightly and organizing many dangerous counterattacks.

In the second half, with the advantage of having more players, pushing up the attacking formation to find goals, but the strikers of U23 China lacked the necessary sharpness to bring about the necessary breakthroughs and had to accept defeat with a minimum score of 0-1.

According to Nhan Dan Newspaper

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