Vietnam is in the seed group above Thailand at the 2019 Asian Cup.
Jumping 10 places, coach Park Hang-seo and his team climbed to 103rd place in the world after a draw with Jordan in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers.
At the end of the 2019 Asian Cup qualifying round, Vietnam had 331 points on the FIFA rankings (up 38 points). Thanks to that, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team moved closer to the top 100 in the world, and escaped the bottom group in the seeding table. This more or less brought Vietnam an advantage in the draw for the final round of the Asian Cup in 2019 in the United Arab Emirates.
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Group 1 and 2 at the 2019 Asian Cup Finals. |
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Group 3 and 4. |
In group three with Vietnam are Iraq, Uzbekistan (both with 381 points), India (354), Qatar (339), and North Korea (292). Of these, Iraq reached the semi-finals in 2015, while Uzbekistan reached the quarter-finals. Coach Park’s team will avoid two big teams in the continent.
If lucky, Vietnam could be drawn in a group with UAE, Kyrgyzstan and Yemen, based on the group results. The latter two teams are participating in the Asian Cup for the first time.
Meanwhile, the two remaining representatives of Southeast Asia, the Philippines (289) and Thailand (243), are not considered seeds. Both are in group four with Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Turkmenistan.
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Vietnam has a chance to get into an easy group at the 2019 Asian Cup Finals. Photo:Doan Huynh. |
The Asian Cup (Asian Championship) has been held every four years, since 1956. Japan is the most successful team with four titles, through 16 tournaments, while Australia is the defending champion. The 2019 Asian Cup takes place from January 5 to February 1, expanded from 16 to 24 teams for the first time. The tournament is held in eight stadiums in four cities.
This is the second time Vietnam has participated in the continent's biggest tournament. In the first time in 2007, as co-hosts with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, Vietnam was the only representative of Southeast Asia to make it past the group stage.
