U23 Thailand (blue shirt) had a good start, beating U23 Myanmar 3-0.
This year's tournament takes place over 10 days, ending with the final match and awards ceremony on August 26. Ten U23 teams from countries in the region compete in three groups (two groups of three teams and one group of four teams).
The Vietnam U23 team is in Group C with the U23 teams: Laos and the Philippines. Group B has the U23 teams: Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor Leste, while the U23 team of the host country Thailand is in Group A with the U23 teams: Myanmar, Cambodia and Brunei. The teams compete in a round-robin format to determine the rankings in each group to select the three group winners and the best second-place team to enter the semi-finals. The two semi-final winners will compete in the championship final, while the two semi-final losers will meet in the third-place match.
The Vietnam U23 team is the current champion of the tournament and the Thailand U23 team is the current runner-up. In the final match of the 2022 tournament in Cambodia, the Vietnam U23 team was crowned champion after defeating the Thailand U23 team 1-0.
In this tournament, U23 Vietnam is led by coach Hoang Anh Tuan with the main force being the U20 team. Although the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) did not set any performance targets but considered this as a tournament to prepare for the Asian Games (ASIAD) in September, coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team are still very determined to defend the "throne".
This determination was clearly stated by coach Hoang Anh Tuan in the press conference before the opening of the tournament, in which he aimed to reach the final match. He said: "We came here as the defending champion and like other teams, we have a very young force participating in this tournament.
I really welcome the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) to maintain this tournament to develop youth football in countries in the region and further advance to the national team level. The force we bring to this tournament is very young with only three 22-year-old players, the majority are 18, 19, 20 years old, especially there is a player who is only 17 years old. U23 Vietnam wants to give the young players a challenge and experience in this tournament. We hope the whole team will have a good tournament."
The U23 Vietnam team will have their opening match against U23 Laos at 4pm on August 20 and against U23 Philippines at 8pm on August 22. With these two opponents, experts believe that coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team will reach the semi-finals.
After the opening ceremonies yesterday afternoon, the 2023 Southeast Asian Football Confederation U23 Championship kicked off with two matches in Group A. In the first match, the U23 Cambodia team started with a big win over the U23 Brunei team 5-0. Immediately after, the host team U23 Thailand also had a favorable start, beating U23 Myanmar 3-0.
According to nhandan.vn
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