Coach Elavarasan of U23 Malaysia unexpectedly praised Vietnamese youth football (U23 Vietnam) right before the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 tournament.
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| Vietnam U23 team training on the field in Thailand. (Source: VFF) |
In the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, U23 Malaysia is in Group B with Indonesia and Timor Leste, while U23 Vietnam is in Group C with the Philippines and Laos (Group A has host Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Brunei).
Although not in the same group, U23 Malaysia of coach Elavarasan can still face coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team from the semi-finals.
Right before entering the first match against Indonesia at 8pm tonight (August 18), coach Elavarasan shared honestly: "Malaysia is lagging behind some countries in the region in terms of youth football development.
Teams like Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are superior to us in terms of young players."
Coach Elavarasan added: "Malaysian football is trying its best to catch up with these teams, to catch up with these football backgrounds in youth training."
According to the head coach of the U23 Malaysia team, the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has prepared a program to develop talented players, with the hope that this country's football will not be left behind by other football teams in the region.
At the 32nd SEA Games, Coach Elavarasan's U23 Malaysia team was "defeated" by Coach Troussier's U23 Vietnam team in the group stage, then eliminated early.
Currently, the composition of the Vietnam U23 team is different from the composition that attended the SEA Games a few months ago. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan temporarily leads the Vietnam U23 team to replace Coach Troussier, and at the same time, Mr. Tuan also uses the U20 generation as the core for the U23 team this time.
However, the U23 Malaysia squad participating in the Southeast Asian tournament taking place in Thailand is not the strongest. They also added many new players, many players younger than the tournament's age regulations. Therefore, the nature of the U23 Malaysia team is not much different from the U23 Vietnam team.
According to the regulations, the top 3 teams from the 3 groups will enter the semi-finals of this year's U23 Southeast Asian tournament. The remaining semi-final spot will be reserved for the second-placed team with the best record. In case U23 Vietnam tops Group C and U23 Malaysia tops Group B, the two sides can meet in the semi-finals.
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