2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship: 'Complete' failure of the host team
(Baonghean.vn) - Although only passing the group stage, the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship has not been as successful as expected by the Organizing Committee and Cambodia.
The 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship is also known as the "pre-SEA Games 31 tournament", where the region's U23 teams compete against each other in preparation for men's football.SEA Games 31will take place in Vietnam next May. Unfortunately, for many subjective and objective reasons, the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship has not received due attention from experts and football fans in the region.
 |
The core of U23 Vietnam is the U21 players. Photo: Internet |
Except for the host team U23 Cambodia and U23 Laos, most of the other teams only sent their reserve squads to the capital Phnom Penh to compete. While the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) sent the U21 team, the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) only sent the U19 team. Obviously, the lack of enthusiasm from the VFF and FAT has caused the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship to lose a lot of value. Not to mention, U23 Indonesia and U23 Myanmar withdrew right before the tournament.
And just like the Women's Asian Cup 2022 that just ended in India, the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship was also severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. A series of infections were detected among the members of U23 Singapore, U23 Vietnam... As a result, in the match between U23 Vietnam and U23 Singapore in the second match of Group C, which took place on February 19, the number of players from both teams who had to rest due to testing positive for Covid-19 was up to more than 10 people.
 |
The host team U23 Cambodia was eliminated in the group stage. Photo: Internet |
Things did not stop there when the number of Covid-19 infections continued to increase. The team most affected was U23 Vietnam, with 14 cases. Facing the risk of not having enough players to compete (minimum 13 players) with U23 Thailand, the U23 Vietnam coaching staff had to "call for help" from the VFF. Immediately, the VFF "supported" coach Dinh The Nam with 6 players: Tran Bao Toan, Phan Tuan Tai, Dinh Quy, Vu Dinh Hai, Nguyen Thanh Nhan and Huynh Tien Dat.
In addition, the early elimination of the host team U23 Cambodia also made the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship less attractive. Certainly, the "Land of Pagodas" fans will no longer be interested in going to the stadium to watch the remaining matches, due to the absence of coach Keisuke Honda and his team. It should be noted that in this year's tournament, U23 Cambodia is the team with the most thorough preparation. With the unexpected defeat against U23 Timor Leste (0 - 1), coach Keisuke Honda and his team had to become "unwilling spectators".
In short, for many reasons, plus the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 Southeast Asian U23 Championship did not take place as initially expected by the Organizing Committee and the host country Cambodia./.
