U23 Vietnam, can it change history?
(Baonghean.vn) - As the current runner-up and one of the four seeded teams at the AFC U23 Championship, Vietnam U23 has received attention from the continent's leading sports newspapers. LiveSportsAsia has a different perspective on the strength of Park Hang-seo and his team.
Since 2014, in the 3 times AFC organized the U23 Asian tournament, our U23 Vietnam participated in 2 and in the 2018 U23 Asian Finals we convincingly won the runner-up position.
There is a truth to forget
But the truth is, the history of participating in the U23 Asian tournament shows that U23 Vietnam lost all the opening matches. Remembering the first time they entered the final round of the U23 Asian tournament in 2016, the U23 Vietnam team was in group D with the teams: UAE, Australia and Jordan. These were all countries with football that were rated higher than Vietnam at that time.
In the first match, U23 Vietnam lost to U23 Jordan with a score of 3-1. The only goal scorer for U23 Vietnam at that time was center back Do Duy Manh. U23 Vietnam lost both of the next two matches and had to stop at the group stage. In particular, the 2-3 loss to U23 UAE with goals scored by Cong Phuong and Tuan Anh promised a new start for Vietnamese youth football.
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| Mr. Park and his students are ready to conquer the 2020 AFC U23 Championship. Photo: VFF |
With a month of preparation, will Coach Park's players be able to score points in their first match against U23 UAE after their third participation in the U23 Asian Cup? Quang Hai and his teammates will have the answer in their opening match this evening.
It is difficult to recreate the miracle.
Even with a favorable result in the opening match of Group D, LiveSportsAsia also commented that U23 Vietnam will find it difficult to repeat the miracle of reaching the final of the tournament like 2 years ago at the 2020 AFC U23 Championship. LiveSportsAsia commented that the current generation of players, although there are still 6 players in the U23 Vietnam team this year who have participated in the tournament in Changzhou, are not as excellent as the senior generation.
If they pass the group stage, U23 Vietnam will have to meet one of two teams from group C - the group of death of the tournament, strong candidates for the championship.
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| The whole team is ready to change history. Photo: VFF |
It seems that foreign journalists have been closely following the activities of U23 Vietnam and the messages of the Korean coach. All developments on the training ground and press conferences are updated, analyzed and given well-founded comments by sports writers.
Actually, without LiveSportsAsia's comment, everyone knows that reaching the semi-finals of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship means winning a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, so the difficulty will definitely increase compared to 2 years ago.
"Coach Park understands this. He does not put much pressure on the players in this year's tournament. His actual goal at the 2020 U23 Asia is to reach the quarterfinals, not to win a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics as we often mention," the author of LiveSportsAsia concluded.
But Vietnamese fans believe that in Thailand, Mr. Park and his students will change the above opinions.