Thailand Coach: U23 Vietnam is a candidate for the Southeast Asian U23 Championship
(Baonghean.vn) - Coach Issara Sritaro of Thailand U23 highly appreciated Vietnam U23 and said that coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team are the number one candidate for the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship.
Thailand U23 is the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the Southeast Asian U23 Championship after 3 wins in the group stage. However, the captain of the "war elephant" team still highly appreciated coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team. Speaking after the match with Cambodia U23, Mr. Issara Sritaro said:
"Vietnam is the strongest team in this year's tournament. They won the previous tournament, and can also play very well in this year's tournament. The Thai coaching staff will carefully consider every detail to find a suitable countermeasure if they meet Vietnam. Let's wait and see what happens on the field."
Evaluating his players' performance in the match against U23 Cambodia, the coach of U23 Thailand said: "When we wanted to adjust the game, things seemed a bit deadlocked. The first half was quite tight.
As soon as we scored an early goal in the second half, the game improved. Looking at the coordination of Thailand U23, my players all performed very well.
But overall there are still some people who have limitations. When we link together, the game becomes better.".
Coach Issara Sritaro also admitted that U23 Thailand still lost the ball easily when leading 2-0. He said: "I must admit that Cambodia has prepared a good team.
They defended low, pressed high and created space. They deserve credit. We tried to fix it at half-time. But the rain made the players less confident.
They can not keep the ball and mess it up and the game is interrupted. When the ball is stable and well controlled, the cheers will be the strength for the young players because they are all determined to play their best for U23 Thailand.".
Coach Issara Sritaro is expected to go to Rayong Stadium with his assistants to watch the match between Vietnam and the Philippines today (August 22).
In the opening match of Group C, Vietnam beat Laos 4-1. If they do not lose in the second match, they will enter the semi-finals as Group C winners, meeting Group B winners Malaysia. In case of losing by no more than 3 goals, Vietnam will still qualify as the best second place in the three groups, meeting Thailand in the semi-finals./.
