Coach Cristiano Roland continues to be assigned by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to lead the Vietnam U17 team to participate in the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals.
As part of the preparation plan for the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals, U17 Vietnam will gather again from February 22 at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center.
Currently, many players of U17 Vietnam are competing in the 2024-2025 National U19 Finals, so the team can only gather more than 1/3 of the players in the initial training phase. After this tournament ends on February 28, the team will have enough strength to continue preparing for the upcoming important tournament.
Coach Roland led U17 Vietnam to qualify for the 2025 U17 Asian Cup with an unbeaten record, taking second place in Group I after 3 matches (drawing 0-0 with Kyrgyzstan, winning 2-0 against Myanmar and drawing 1-1 with Yemen). Previously, the team also made a strong impression at the 2024 Peace Cup friendly tournament in China when defeating Uzbekistan 3-0 and Japan 1-0, winning the runner-up position.
Along with coach Roland, the coaching staff of U17 Vietnam includes assistants to coach Fernando Atz Gabriel ( portugal), Nguyen Dai Dong (Hanoi), Hoang Tuan Anh, Nguyen Ngoc Duy (PVF), goalkeeper coach Tran Van Dien (PVF) and fitness expert Brandi Regato Neto Jose (VFF). In particular, VFF also appointed Mr. Yutaka Ikeuchi (Japan) as a technical supervision advisor to support the team.
According to the plan, the U17 Vietnam team will train in Oman from March 23 to March 29, then travel to Saudi Arabia to participate in the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals.
The 2025 U17 Asian Cup will expand from 2025 with 48 teams, of which Asia has 8 spots. Therefore, the teams that reached the quarter-finals of the U17 Asian Cup finals will qualify for the World Cup.
Despite being in a difficult group with Japan, Australia and the UAE, coach Roland is confident in the team's competitiveness and aims to pass the group stage, go deep and qualify for the 2025 U17 World Cup.
