U17 Vietnam lost to Japanese semi-professional team

On the afternoon of November 13, U17 Vietnam had the last friendly match during the training trip in Japan, against U18 Ehime, to prepare for the 2026 U17 Asian qualifiers.

U17 Vietnam had an interesting match against the Japanese team - Photo: VFF

On the afternoon of November 13, local time, the U17 Vietnam team played a friendly match with U18 Ehime. This is considered the strongest "blue team" that coach Cristiano Roland and his team will face in this training session, when they have the next force of Ehime Club - a team currently playing in J-League 2.

In this match, coach Cristiano Roland continued to take full advantage of the opportunity to test and evaluate his squad. At the beginning of the match, both teams entered the match at a fairly high speed.

Despite facing a stronger team, the U17 Vietnam players still maintained a reasonable formation distance and created many quality counter-attacks.

In the 34th minute, U18 Ehime opened the score 1-0. From a dangerous cross from the right wing, goalkeeper Xuan Hoa blocked the first shot but could not stop the follow-up shot from the opposing team's player.

In the second half, U17 Vietnam played better, confidently pushing up their formation and putting a lot of pressure on the opponent's goal. However, while engrossed in attacking, Coach Roland's students let U18 Ehime exploit the space in the 70th minute, raising the score to 2-0 after a quick counter-attack.

Not giving up, U17 Vietnam still persistently organized attacks at the end of the match. That effort was rewarded in the 89th minute, when Nguyen Hiep Dai Viet Nam seized the opportunity to finish neatly in the penalty area, shortening the score to 1-2. This was also the final result of the match.

Although they did not win, the performance against a strong opponent helped U17 Vietnam gain many valuable lessons about the ability to withstand pressure, change state and organize attacks, important factors in the playing style to aim for the 2026 U17 Asia qualifiers.

Thus, after 3 matches against Japanese opponents, U17 Vietnam won 1 (against U18 Imabari), drew 1 (against Matsuyama University 1-1) and lost 1 (against U18 Ehime).

Vietnam U17 will have one more day to practice before ending the training trip in Japan (taking place from November 6). The team will return home on November 15 and enter the final preparation phase before participating in the 2026 AFC U17 qualifiers, taking place from November 22 to 30 in Hanoi and Hung Yen.

NGOC LE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/u17-viet-nam-thua-doi-ban-chuyen-nhat-ban-20251113164731709.htm