Identifying Vietnam's opponents at the 2019 Asian Cup

Iran team

The most notable name in the group with the presence of the Vietnam national team is the team currently ranked No. 1 in Asia according to the FIFA rankings. According to the preliminary list of 21 Iranian players participating in the 2019 Asian Cup just announced by coach Carlos Queiroz, there are 11 players on this list who played in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

With their experience, strength and courage, it is not difficult to understand why Iran's national team aims to win Group D and win the championship in this tournament.

Iran is ranked number 1 in Asia. Photo: Internet

The most notable absence from this list is Karim Ansarifard, who scored against Portugal at the 2018 World Cup. However, this is only a preliminary list and it is entirely possible that coach Carlos Queiroz can add or remove some players before the tournament takes place.

Iraq team

When mentioning the Iraqi team and the Asian Cup, Vietnamese fans cannot forget the Asian-level tournament of national teams in 2007. That year, the Vietnamese team under the guidance of coach Alfred Riedl surprisingly won 2nd place after Japan at the end of the group stage.

Entering the quarter-finals, the opponent was also the champion of the 2007 Asian Cup, Iraq. Vietnam lost with 2 goals from leader Younis Mahmoud. Since Younis Mahmoud retired in 2016, Iraq has also plummeted and is currently ranked 88th in the FIFA rankings, only 12 places higher than Vietnam.

Also in the quarter-finals, but at the U23 Asian tournament that took place earlier this year, U23 Vietnam with many players who will participate in this Asian Cup dramatically defeated U23. The brightest star of the Iraq team is currently left-back Ali Adnan, who is playing in Italy for the Atalanta club.

Ali Adnan is the brightest star of Iraqi football. Photo: Getty

But now at the age of 25, Ali Adnan is showing signs of slowing down. In Serie A this season, Adnan has only played 3 matches. The last time Adnan played was in September, in Atalanta's last 9 matches in Serie A, Adnan had to sit on the bench.

If they beat or even draw with Iraq in the first match, coach Park Hang-seo and his team can completely dream of 2nd place after finishing the group stage.

Yemen National Team

With the presence of two strong opponents, Iran and Iraq, and a Vietnamese team that has made remarkable progress recently, Yemen must aim to continue with the achievement of the third-placed team with the best results. In this training session, the Yemen team has called up all 23 of its best players, including 10 players currently playing in the Qatar (8), Oman (1) and Brazil (1) national championships.

Yemen national team calls up its best players to attend the Asian Cup. Photo: Internet

In this list, the oldest is goalkeeper Salem Saeed (34 years old), and the youngest is Ahmed Abdulhakim Al-Sarori (20 years old). There is a special detail that at the upcoming Asian Cup 2019, Yemen only has 1 player under the age of 23, the rest are 24 years old or older. Their average age in this tournament is 28.7 years old.

There is another notable detail related to coach Jan Kocian. That is, he is quite famous and very experienced. In the past, this 60-year-old coach led the Slovakian national team in the period 2006-2008.

With the above situation of the team and information about the opponents, if maintaining the form in the past tournaments along with the talented management and enthusiasm of a team of young players, hopefully the Vietnam National Team will win 2nd place or 3rd place with the best results after the end of the group stage to be able to win the right to continue to the next round.