Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’snational futsal team are ready for the 2020 AFC Futsal Championship finals tobe held in Turkmenistan from February 26 to March 8.
Head coach Pham Minh Giang has announceda 20-man squad for the tournament.
Key players in theVietnamese futsal team's run to a third-place finish in the Futsal HDBankChampionship Southeast Asia 2019 have made the squad, including Tran Van Vu, PhamDuc Hoa, Ton That Phi, Le Quoc Nam, Khong Dinh Hung, Vu Quc Hung and Ho Van Y.
The coach also called up young playersNguyen Van Hieu of Da Nang and Nguyen Huynh Thanh Huy of Cao Bang.
Hieu was top scorer of theNational Futsal Championship 2018, while Huy has risen from his place in the VietnamU20 futsal team.
Two key players Nguyen Minh Triand Tran Thai Huy, who play for Y.S.C.C. Yokohama FS in the Japanese seconddivision futsal league, will return to the national squad on January 15.
The team convened in HCM Cityon January 6 and are training at the Thai Son Nam Gymnasium. They will leavefor Spain on February 9.
In Europe, they will have threefriendly matches before heading to Turkmenistan on February 21 to compete inthe 2020 AFC Futsal Championship finals.
The event will feature 16teams from across the continent. Vietnam are in Group A with the hosts,Tajikistan and Oman.
The teams will compete in around-robin format in the group stage to select the top two teams in each groupto advance to the quarter-finals, in which the four winners will qualify for2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup, while four losers will enter fifth place play-offsto decide the last ticket for AFC members to the World Cup.
The Vietnamese team, whofinished fourth in the 2016 tournament, aim to progress to the knockoutstage and earn a slot among the top five teams to qualify for World Cup inLithuania.
Vietnam will start theircampaign with the opening match against Tajikistan on February 26, beforeencountering Oman two days later and wrapping up the group stage againstthe hosts Turkmenistan on March 1.
In the AFC Futsal Championshipfour years ago, Vietnam made a shock by beating Japan in the quarter-finals toearn a ticket to compete in the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2017. It was the firsttime in history a Vietnamese national football team secured a place at theWorld Cup./.
VNA