U22 Vietnam considers the tournament in China as a stepping stone for SEA Games 33

(PLVN) - Coach Dinh Hong Vinh believes that CFA Team China - Panda Cup 2025 is an important stepping stone to help the U22 Vietnam team perfect their playing style before entering the 33rd SEA Games.

The Panda Cup 2025 is considered a highly competitive international tournament, gathering the continent's top youth teams. Besides U22 Vietnam and host China, the two guest teams Uzbekistan and South Korea are also familiar opponents as they participated with U22 Vietnam in the international friendly tournament organized by CFA in March 2025.

"In that tournament, U22 Vietnam drew 1-1 with South Korea, 0-0 with Uzbekistan and 1-1 with China. Those matches really helped our young players mature a lot, contributing to creating a foundation for U22 Vietnam to win the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship, and also win all the 2026 Asian U23 Qualifiers," Coach Dinh Hong Vinh shared before the tournament's opening day.

Coach Dinh Hong Vinh also hopes that continuing to face strong opponents at CFA Team China - Panda Cup 2025 will be an important stepping stone to help the Vietnam U22 team consolidate its strength and perfect its playing style, before entering the two upcoming big goals: SEA Games 33 and the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Finals.

Besides, Coach Dinh Hong Vinh also frankly admitted the difficulties in preparing for this tournament when many players had to compete in V.League 2025/26 so they could not gather early.

“We only had our full squad this afternoon when six players had just completed their playing duties for their home clubs. However, the team has been preparing throughout many training sessions since the end of 2024, so this is not a big obstacle. The whole team will try their best to compete well, achieve the highest professional efficiency, thereby creating a sprint for the 33rd SEA Games,” said coach Dinh Hong Vinh.

On the afternoon of November 11, the U22 Vietnam team entered its first training session in Sichuan. According to the schedule, the match between U22 Vietnam and U22 China will take place at 6:35 p.m. (Vietnam time) on November 12.

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/u22-viet-nam-coi-giai-dau-tai-trung-quoc-la-buoc-dem-cho-sea-games-33.html