AFC U20 Championship: Launchpad to World Cup

A happy ending for the young team that did not concede any goals in the group stage, only lost 1 goal in the quarter-finals, then twice consecutively defeated their opponents in the 11m penalty shootout and the final victory also took place in a nerve-wracking 11m penalty shootout.

The quarter-final matches not only showed the superiority of the convincing group winners such as Uzbekistan, Japan, South Korea... but also proved the old precedent that knockout matches are unpredictable, when the group leader Iran lost in extra time to Iraq and then this team went all the way to the final.

The physical torture between strong teams like Japan and South Korea against China and Jordan showed the strength of the traditional football teams in the continent. However, the two semi-finals were a different story when the teams were equal in strength but the mentality and luck were the deciding factors when they brought each other to the penalty shootout after 120 minutes of undecided score. Interestingly, both powerful East Asian teams, Japan and South Korea, lost on the unlucky penalty spot and ended the game regrettably.

Although the tournament's top scorer was Kumata (Japan, 5 goals), the semi-final and final matches helped experts and fans recognize the portraits of the most prominent stars belonging to the two teams present in the final decisive match, Uzbekistan and Iraq.

The host team's most prominent star was goalkeeper Boymurodov, who helped the home team win the penalty shootouts in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, especially stopping three consecutive nerve-wracking shots from the Korean opponent in the semi-finals.

This goalkeeper was also an excellent player in the final, when he caught or cleared the ball when facing the opponent striker one-on-one. The second player to mention is striker Fayzulaev, who earned a penalty in the final and many accelerations, brilliant passes in the previous matches, the real soul in the home team's attacking situations...

On the U20 Iraq side, the victory over the powerful neighboring team Iran came unexpectedly from a unique move by Ali Jasim in the quarter-finals. After that, the player with extremely delicate ball handling and unstoppable breakthroughs, Ali scored another goal in the semi-final against Japan. Unfortunately, in the final, Ali could not convert the opportunity at the end of the match into an equalizer after a powerful and dangerous dribble in the opponent's penalty area.

Of course, the two teams playing the final match above are both cohesive teams, evenly balanced between defense and attack. But if Uzbekistan plays with long balls and has excellent defense, Iraq is more excellent in counter-attacks, individual breakthroughs, and finishing off opponents. Going into the final match, both teams are mentally tough, strong enough to overcome any unexpected adversity...

Reviewing the above lines, we can see a very important thing that Vietnamese youth football needs to strive for in order to reach new heights when Van Khang, Van Truong, Quoc Viet... have left their mark for the first time in the continental youth playground and countless weaknesses that have forced us to stop early. Quoc Viet entered the tournament's achievements with 2 goals along with 12 other players, including the excellent Ali mentioned above. Van Khang, Van Truong scored 1 goal along with 28 other names in the final round... are the first important marks that need to be recognized.

But Van Khang and his teammates, even though they can play excellently in 1-2 matches, even though they try extremely hard, the long-term story with the demands of physical endurance, reasonable distribution, limited physique, unstable mentality, and required class... are specific reasons when talking about the cause of our failure. Here, knowing is one thing, but overcoming is a completely different story, requiring time, effort, money and many other things. The gap can be gradually shortened in a few matches, but a tournament is a mountain that is not easy to overcome. It is coach P. Troussier who understands better than ever the "launching pad" nature of a youth tournament, young potential and he himself has been doing the necessary work from U20 Vietnam to gradually fill these unwanted gaps...