Vietnam's U23 team trains in preparation for the match with Syria. (Photo: vff.org.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) - VietnamU23 team is expected to write a new page in the history of Vietnamese footballwhen they face U23 Syria in the last Group D qualifying round match at theAsian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship finals in China today.
In the two previousmatches, Vietnam lost to the Republic of Korea (RoK) 1-2 andbeat Australia 1-0. The victory against Australia marked amilestone for the U23 Vietnam team as the first time it has secured a winin the AFC finals. The success opened the door for Vietnam to enter thequarter-finals for the first time.
A victoryover Syria would seal a spot in the next phase for Vietnam, while adraw may be enough depending on the outcome of the game between Australia andthe RoK.
The RoK is now the top ofthe group with four points. While Vietnam and Australia ranksecond and third with three points, Syria is at the bottom with onlyone point.
“The upcoming matchagainst Syria will be a great chance for Vietnam to write a newpage for Vietnam football,” said midfielder and captain Luong Xuan Truong.
“We have had a goodperformance in the match with Australia. That win will be a motivatingforce for us to beat Syria. We will try our best to make Vietnamesefootball history more beautiful,” Truong added.
On the Syrian side, coachHussein Afash of Syria was full of praise for the Vietnamese team. Hesaid the Vietnam team had good discipline. With the line-up of 5-4-1, theVietnamese team moved very fast when it held attacks.
Afash said he had searchedfor Vietnam’s strong and weak points by observing matches in the event. TheSyrians also need a win to enter the next round.
“Syria will play withall our strength to earn a slot in the quarter-finals. I believe that my team’schances are still clear and we will play with this belief,” said Afash.
Meanwhile, the VietnamFootball Federation (VFF)’s leaders confirmed that they aren’t putting pressureon the Vietnamese team at the AFC event.
“We are very glad that inthe past two matches, Vietnam had good advances in terms of experience,skill and spirit. We maintain our point of view that we aren’t setting anytargets for the team,” said Vice President of the VFF Tran Quoc Tuan.
According to Tuan, Vietnam’slevel of play isn’t as good as that of the RoK and Australia, soVietnam’s results with the two above teams are praiseworthy, but now the teammust stabilize their level of ability for the long term.
“Syria is a weakrival. They lost to Australia 1-3 and tied goalless with the RoK.Syrian players are very skillful so it is rather difficult for Vietnam toface them. It is very reasonable when coach Park Hang-seo asked his players toforget the win with Australia to focus on Syria,” said Tuan.-VNA
VNA
