U23 Vietnam - Qatar: "Golden Star Warriors" conquer high mountains!

Super ambitious opponent

Although Qatar is not strong in football, thanks to its abundant financial potential, the rich owners of this oil-rich country are carrying out a global strategy to build the image of a Qatar "football nation”in its own way that not everyone can do. As a result, Qatar football has risen to become one of the "giants" of Asia.

Qatar U23 has the core of the 2014 Asian U19 championship team. Photo: Internet

The clearest proof is that the national team of this rich country has won a ticket to Russia to participate in the 2018 World Cup, before becoming the host team to host the most prestigious football tournament on the planet next time in 2022. In which, the players participating in the U23 Asian Cup are the core to carry out the task called "super ambition" for the country's football. It is this promising generation of players who were crowned kings at the 2014 U19 Asian Championship.

U23 Qatar has good physique, good physical strength, and the ability to press strongly like our two defeated opponents, Syria and Iraq. But compared to other West Asian teams, Coach Sanchez's team showed more skillful techniques, so they handled the ball and coordinated better. That was the key factor that helped them win the ticket to the semi-finals in the respect and persuasion of their opponents when they won all 4 matches and showed a quite comprehensive image of offense and defense. This team scored in all matches to have 7 goals and only conceded 3 goals.

U23 Qatar has ambitions to win the 2018 U23 Asian Championship. Photo: Internet

The current U23 Qatar squad possesses a creative midfield and a sharp attack that many other teams desire. Midfielders such as Salman, Muneer, Moein, Madibo are all playing in Europe. In particular, the Gulf team possesses the most dangerous striker duo in the tournament, Kram Afif and Almoez Ali. In particular, the "killer" Ali can finish well with both feet and head and is currently leading in the number of goals scored with 5 goals. The playing style of U23 Qatar is also full of variations with a Spanish style, helping the players to show off their technical qualities.

Obviously, with a strong army, the goal of this super ambitious team does not stop at the semi-finals, if not to say they come to the U23 Asian Cup Finals to play the last match before winning the championship this year.

Ready for the "storm"!

Certainly, U23 Qatar is a huge challenge for Coach Park Hang Seo and his students. However, with what has been shown, U23 Vietnam has sent out a clear message: "Anything can happen". The Korean coach once affirmed "We came here to make surprises". Indeed, U23 Vietnam under the leadership of the Korean strategist does not have the so-called fear, too difficult, impossible or satisfaction, falling asleep in victory. Instead, there is confidence, strong desire, indomitable will like "warriors" to rush forward in solidarity and surprisingly calm.

The victory over Iraq created momentum for the red-shirted warriors to conquer the high mountains of Qatar. Photo: Internet

Entering the uncompromising "war" with U23 Qatar, it is certain that the "golden star" army will once again enter the game with the mindset of "knowing the enemy and knowing yourself" with that spirit, along with the "troop command" talent of Coach Park Hang Seo in the mobile "bus" tactic with two flexible tactical diagrams. The 5-4-1 diagram will create a double-decker "bus" placed in front of Bui Tien Dung's goal to create solidity. The 3-4-3 diagram will help the "bus" not stand still but move around the field to suddenly deliver a "finishing" blow to the opponent when there is an opportunity.

Although U23 Vietnam is still in the underdog position, still at a disadvantage when resting one day less than Qatar and defender Van Hau did not recover from injury in time... But believe that the excitement after the victory over Iraq, the confidence, the strong desire with the "cool head" of the players and the way of using people, the ability to read the game skillfully of "wizard" Park Hang Seo will make up for it all.

Coach Felix Sanchez and Park Hang-seo shake hands before the mind game this afternoon.

So, no matter how “high-class” an opponent Qatar is, and how highly rated they are in every aspect, everyone will still dream of the next miracle for U23 Vietnam. As coach Park Hang-seo shared after the recent match with Iraq: “Before the match, I told the players that this task would be very difficult. But in the end, they still did it.".

There is a saying: “In this life there is no dead end, only boundaries, the key is to have the strength to overcome those boundaries”. I believe that U23 Vietnam has the strength to overcome boundaries, from its familiar shyness to the challenges before Australia, Syria, Iraq. In other words, U23 Vietnam is ready to continue writing the “fairy tale” before the “storm” called Qatar.