Vietnam futsal team is in the number 1 seed group, going to train and have a friendly match with the world champion team.

According to the classification of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Vietnamese futsal team is in the number one seed group in the 2024 Asian Futsal qualifiers.

Vietnam futsal team players. (Source: VFF)

Vietnam futsal team in group one seed

The seeding is based on the teams' performance at the 2022 AFC Futsal Championship.

At the 2022 Asian Futsal Championship finals, the Vietnamese team stopped at the quarter-finals after losing to strong regional opponent Iran.

Along with Vietnam, other teams in the top seed group include Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Tajikistan, Indonesia, and Kuwait.

Group 2 (ranked 9-16) includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Chinese Taipei, Turkmenistan, Lebanon, South Korea, Myanmar.

Group 3 (ranked 17-24) includes Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Australia, Palestine, Hong Kong (China), Timor Leste.

Group 4 (ranked 25th or below) includes Cambodia, Maldives, Mongolia, Brunei, China, India, Macau.

In addition to the seeding groups, AFC also announced the list of 8 teams hosting 8 groups (7 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams) in the qualifying round including Bahrain, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

These home teams will be drawn into 8 groups according to the code positions of the 4 corresponding seed groups.

The draw for the 2024 AFC Futsal Championship qualifiers will take place at 2:00 p.m. on June 22. The three qualifying matches have been scheduled for October 7, October 9, and October 11, 2023.

The teams will compete in a round robin format to calculate rankings in each group.

The eight group winners and seven second-placed teams (15 teams in total) with the best results in each group will qualify for the 2024 AFC Futsal Championship. The 16th ticket will go to the team of the country hosting the tournament.

Coach Giustozzi Diego Raul of the Vietnam futsal team. (Source: VFF)

Training program in Paraguay and Argentina

To prepare for the tournament, on May 31, the Vietnamese futsal team will leave for training and friendly matches in Paraguay and Argentina.

Accordingly, 3 out of 19 players summoned for the training camp on May 8 had to say goodbye to their teammates: goalkeeper Luu Thanh Bao, Nguyen Huu Phuc and Ala Tran Nhat Trung.

This is a decision that the Argentine strategist has calculated and considered on the basis of ensuring equal resources for the team's playing groups.

Recently, the Vietnamese futsal team has been practicing diligently at Thai Son Nam Stadium, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City.

The team also had two very useful international friendly matches against the Solomon Islands futsal team on May 25 and 26 respectively. In these two matches, despite many experiments in the lineup, the Vietnamese futsal team still showed superiority and won with the same score of 5-0.

In the upcoming South American training trip, the first destination of the Vietnamese futsal team will be Paraguay. During the training period here, the team will play 3 friendly matches with the Paraguayan futsal team (June 4, 6 and 8) before moving to the second training destination, Argentina.

In Argentina, coach Giustozzi Diego Raul and his team will have three more high-quality friendly matches with the host country's futsal team, on June 10, 12 and 14 respectively.

Paraguay is currently ranked 9th in the world futsal rankings, while Argentina is ranked 4th and was crowned world champion in 2016.

Competing against such high-class opponents will clearly bring great benefits to the Vietnamese futsal team players.

This is also a great effort by the Vietnam Football Federation in investing in a focused manner, ensuring that the Vietnamese futsal team has the best preparation for the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship Qualifiers, which will take place next October.