U17 Vietnam qualified for the quarterfinals of the 2026 AFC U17 Championship after a 3-2 victory over U17 UAE in the last group stage match. This result also helped the Vietnamese youth team get a ticket to the 2026 U17 World Cup.
Watching live matches in Saudi Arabia, Chairman of the Vietnam Football Federation - Tran Quoc Tuan highly appreciated the fighting spirit of the whole team.
He believes that U17 Vietnam has shown clear progress after the defeat against U17 Korea, especially in the ability to adjust psychology and expertise.
U17 Vietnam entered the final match with a very disadvantageous situation when conceding a goal very early. But the players fought bravely to reverse the score successfully. This is a very commendable achievement," Mr. Tuan shared.
After the 1-4 defeat to U17 Korea, VFF leaders also directly encouraged the players. Chairman Tran Quoc Tuan told the whole team: "You don't have to cry, U17 Vietnam will stand up strongly".
Thanks to that, Sy Bach and his teammates had a good performance against U17 UAE, making an impressive comeback despite being led by the opponent after only 17 seconds.
In the quarter-finals, U17 Vietnam will meet U17 Australia. This is an opponent who previously lost to Vietnam in the semi-finals of the U17 Southeast Asian Championship. However, VFF requests the team to continue to maintain concentration, prepare carefully in terms of tactics and psychology for the upcoming match.
In addition to the results at the Asian tournament, VFF also built a long-term plan for youth football.
Chairman Tran Quoc Tuan said: "With the achievement of winning the right to participate in the World Cup, U17 Vietnam will not have to play in the qualifiers next year. However, VFF will continue to invest in the U15 and U16 teams.
In particular, in 2026, we will for the first time organize the U16 League for professional clubs to create an environment for competition and training for the force towards the 2027 AFC U17 Championship finals”.
According to the plan, the U16 League will help young players have more regular matches, improve training quality and create a successor resource for national youth teams in the coming years.
