After losing heavily to U17 Japan in the U17 Asian tournament, U17 Vietnam is at risk of being eliminated.

In the second match of Group D of the 2023 AFC U17 Championship, despite having a good game against Japan U17, the result was not as expected. Compared to the opening match against India U17, Vietnam U17 had 2 changes in the starting lineup when facing Japan U17, accordingly Huynh Trieu gave way to Hoang Nam and Le Phat replaced Thien Phu.

Vietnam U17 conceded an early goal in the 2nd minute. Michiwaki jumped high to head the ball to help Japan take the lead. After the opening goal, Japan U17 continuously threatened goalkeeper Bao Ngoc's goal. Luckily for us, Bao Ngoc played with all his might, helping Vietnam U17 avoid conceding another goal in the first half.

At the beginning of the second half, coach Hoang Anh Tuan made 3 consecutive substitutions. While struggling to find an equalizer, the Golden Star Warriors had to accept 3 more goals in the second half. The goals came to the team from the land of the rising sun in the 59th, 66th and 75th minutes, respectively, by Mochizuki, Sato and Mochizuki. Against a strong opponent like Japan, U17 Vietnam had to accept a 4-0 defeat.

Immediately after that, U17 Uzbekistan won a minimal but effective victory against U17 India. The Central Asian team got 4 points after 2 matches and put U17 Vietnam in an extremely difficult situation.

However, the chances of U17 Vietnam advancing are still quite high because the 2023 AFC U17 Championship prioritizes the head-to-head record as the secondary index. In the final match, U17 Vietnam can decide their own fate by defeating U17 Uzbekistan. At that time, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team will have the same 4 points as their opponent but will be higher thanks to the head-to-head win and will enter the quarter-finals if U17 Japan does not lose to U17 India.

However, U17 Vietnam certainly cannot win the top spot in the group because they lost to U17 Japan. In case of a draw or loss to U17 Uzbekistan, U17 Vietnam will of course have to stop because they have less points than this team as well as U17 Japan.

Group D could see a very rare scenario in football tournaments: 4 teams all get 4 points after the group stage. This would happen if U17 Vietnam wins U17 Uzbekistan and U17 India wins U17 Japan.

This scenario is very unlikely to happen because Japan U17 is much stronger than India U17, but it still exists in theory. In case all 4 teams have the same score, the head-to-head record is equal. Then, the teams will be ranked based on the secondary indexes like the tournaments without head-to-head.

In the final match, U17 Vietnam will meet Uzbekistan at 7:00 p.m. on June 23./.

Hai Hoang