Fair match
The ticket to the quarterfinals of the 2022 AFC U23 Championship has helped Vietnam U23 be seeded in the No. 1 group, thus falling into a not-so-difficult group in the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers.
Vietnam U.23 has passed the group stage of the U.23 Asia Championship 4 times in a row (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022). This time, the opportunity for coach Philippe Troussier and his team to continue to be present in the final round is very high, when the opponents in the same group are U.23 Singapore, U.23 Yemen and U.23 Guam.
U.23 Singapore is no stranger to U.23 Vietnam. At the 32nd SEA Games, Mr. Troussier's students easily defeated their opponents with a score of 3-1. U.23 Singapore has never qualified for the U.23 Asia qualifiers. The youth team in the lion island also drew 1 and lost 5 out of 6 official matches played since the beginning of 2023.
U.23 Vietnam (white shirt) defeated U.23 Singapore at SEA Games 32
At the Merlion Cup 2023 held at home, U.23 Singapore disappointed when they lost to U.23 Hong Kong and U.23 Cambodia, finishing last overall. U.23 Singapore has declined rapidly in recent years, in a context where more than half of the squad was trained at the youth academy of a single club (Young Lions FC).
The lack of quality training centers makes U.23 Singapore lack talent. At the 2022 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament, U.23 Singapore also lost 7-0 to U.23 Vietnam. The decline of Singapore youth football has been going on for nearly a decade, so it would not be surprising if U.23 Singapore continues to lose in this qualifying round.
U.23 Guam is the weakest team in the group. With an underdeveloped football background like Guam, sending youth teams to the qualifying round is simply to gain experience. This team cannot avoid a rain of goals, when most of the players do not play at a high level, many of whom come from school football.
Young players have more playgrounds to assert themselves.
U.23 Yemen will be the team that coach Troussier and his team must pay the most attention to. The West Asian representative has participated in the U.23 Asian finals twice, losing all 6 matches. Yemeni football is not a force in the Gulf region, however, U.23 Yemen is still an unknown because of the physical, fast and direct playing style typical of West Asia. To counter U.23 Yemen, U.23 Vietnam needs to carefully study the opponent's playing style.
Overall, the moderate group stage and home field advantage are the foundations for U.23 Vietnam to have another smooth qualifying journey.
What is coach Troussier planning?
Coach Troussier has summoned a strong force for the 2023 U.23 Asian qualifiers, with the core consisting of players who just participated in the 32nd SEA Games, combined with some new factors such as Duc Anh (Hanoi Club), Nam Hai (SLNA), The Hieu, Tuan Phong (Hue Club), Dinh Bac (Quang Nam Club), An Khanh (Sigma Olomouc), Minh Quang (Binh Thuan Club).
Among them, Nam Hai and Minh Quang were just given the opportunity by coach Hoang Anh Tuan to participate in the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament and proved themselves.
After the upcoming training days to select the optimal list, coach Troussier will likely continue to take advantage of the U.23 Asia qualifiers to test because the opponent is not too strong.
Coach Troussier will give a chance to new players
How to rotate people to create opportunities for new faces and still get good results, that will be a problem that Mr. Troussier and his colleagues will consider carefully.
At the 32nd SEA Games, Coach Troussier continuously made the most of his 5 substitutions to let as many players on the field as possible, even making early substitutions in some matches. Although U.23 Vietnam did not play successfully at the 32nd SEA Games, the French coach later "spotted" a number of players to bring up to the national team.
Coach Troussier and Coach Hoang Anh Tuan have agreed on the point of view: the youth playground is a place to discover and train talents for the national team. Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan's U.23 Vietnam has completed the mission of introducing some new faces such as Minh Quang, Nam Hai, Ba Dat or Minh Khoa, now it is time for Mr. Troussier's U.23 team to become a "gem furnace".
The 2024 AFC U.23 Championship qualifiers are worth watching for Vietnam U.23, as new players will continue to step into the spotlight.
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