AFC U20 Championship: Hope to repeat the 2016 miracle

Tough draw

The 42nd edition of the tournament will be held in Uzbekistan, which also hosted last year's AFC U-23 Championship. The 2023 AFC U-20 Championship will take place from March 1 to March 18.

A total of 16 teams are participating in this year's tournament. Of which, the U20 Vietnam team is in Group B, which is a very difficult group when facing the leading developed football nations in Asia today. Qatar, Australia and Iran are all countries representing Asia at the 2022 World Cup, so theyouth teamTheir team will also be of high quality. Iran U20 are four-time champions, Qatar U20 also won the tournament in 2014 and reached the semi-finals in 2018, while Australia U20's best achievement was runner-up in 2010. With a group of many strong Asian teams, Vietnam U20 will have to try very hard to go deep in this year's tournament.

U20 Vietnam is in a difficult group at the U20 Asian finals. Photo: AFC

Careful preparation

Aware of the difficulties that will be faced, the Vietnam Football Federation has made quite thorough preparations for the Vietnam U20 team. From December 28, 2022, coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team began to gather with 36 players. After a period of training at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center (Hanoi), the U20 Vietnam coaching staff has shortened the list to 25 players from the original 36 names and added 5 players currently playing atV.League 2023The team will have a training trip to West Asia from February 15 to February 23. Here, U20 Vietnam won 2-1 against U20 Saudi Arabia and will play a friendly match with Dubai FC on February 23. These matches will be important tests to help coach Hoang Anh Tuan shape the personnel and playing style of U20 Vietnam in this tournament.

U20 Vietnam training in UAE. Photo: VFF

Hope for a miracle

Despite being in a difficult group, U20 Vietnam certainly did not come to Uzbekistan for fun. There are many outstanding players in the U20 Vietnam squad participating in this tournament. They are captain Khuat Van Khang (Viettel club), midfielder Dinh Xuan Tien (Song Lam Nghe An), striker Nguyen Quoc Viet (Hoang Anh Gia Lai) and the best young player of V.League 2022 Nguyen Phi Hoang (SHB Da Nang). With these quality players, coach Hoang Anh Tuan can completely help U20 Vietnam go deep in this tournament.

Midfielder Dinh Xuan Tien is one of the hopes of U20 Vietnam in this year's tournament. Photo: Xuan Thuy

Especially when coach Hoang Anh Tuan was the one who led U20 Vietnam to the final round of the 2017 U20 World Cup. To achieve that achievement, coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team also excelled in overcoming many formidable opponents at the 2016 U19 Asian Cup. That was a 2-1 victory over U19 Democratic People's Republic of Korea and two draws against U19 UAE and U19 Iraq.

With 5 points after 3 matches, U19 Vietnam ranked 2nd in Group B and met the host team U19 Bahrain in the quarter-finals. Under great pressure from the Bahraini audience, our young players played a brave match to bring home a 1-0 victory (player Tran Thanh scored the only goal). This victory is one of the most memorable victories of Vietnamese football in the international arena.

Continuing the successes in history, hopefully under the guidance of coach Hoang Anh Tuan, Khuat Van Khang,Dinh Xuan Tien, Nguyen Phi Hoang will shine in this tournament to bring emotional matches to home fans.