Asian Cup 2019: Identifying Yemen's opponents

In fact, being drawn into a group with teams like Iraq and Iran is a big obstacle for the Vietnamese team, because these two opponents are currently the top teams in Asia.

However, if we are one of the four third-placed teams with the best results, we will still advance. Hope for Mr. Park Hang-seo's team when the final opponent, Yemen, is considered a "pavement" in this year's tournament.

Yemen is currently ranked 135th in the FIFA rankings. This means that this West Asian representative is 35 places behind their next opponent, Vietnam.

Yemen is considered the weakest team in Group D. Photo: AFC

Yemen's football achievements are not remarkable except that they had a U17 team participating in the 2003 U17 World Cup.

As for the 2019 Asian Cup, Yemen had to struggle to get through the qualifying round.

In the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers, Yemen finished bottom of the group in the first round with only 3 points after 8 matches. However, in the final qualifying round, they played well to finish 2nd in Group F, thereby winning the right to participate in the final round.

Being present at the Asian Cup finals is truly a great achievement in the history of Yemeni football. This country, which is currently ravaged by civil war, does not have the conditions to develop a truly professional football. The Yemeni National Championship is currently suspended for 3 years.

Football in this country is still very difficult because of the war. Photo: AFC

The biggest change for this team before participating in the 2019 Asian Cup is probably the appointment of Czech coach - Mr. Jan Kocian as head coach. This strategist who led Solovakia called up players who are playing in the Qatar, Oman and Iraq leagues to prepare for the Asian Cup. The most famous name is the captain midfielder Ala Al-Sasi, he has played 87 times for the Yemen national team.

At the 2019 Asian Cup, Yemen has yet to score a single goal and is currently at the bottom of Group D with two losses. They lost their opening match 0-5 to Iran and in the second match, they continued to lose 0-3 to another West Asian team, Iraq.

Yemen is even considered a "underdog" team at the 2019 Asian Cup. Photo: AFC

Overall, Yemen’s style of play is nothing special because they lack international experience. The strength of this team is probably their high fighting spirit and being led by a veteran coach in Europe.

Obviously, with a weak opponent like Yemen, the Vietnamese team has no other goal than to be determined to have a convincing victory after the past two losses.