VFF's quick response
The appearance of the concert "Anh trai say hi" at My Dinh National Stadium on December 7 accidentally caused the plan of the Vietnam National Team in the group stage of the ASEAN Cup 2024 (formerly the AFF Cup) to change.
According to the tournament organizers’ regulations, any stadium registered with the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) must ensure the quality of the grass, construction system, facilities, and not organize other events in the 3 weeks before the match starts. Therefore, the Vietnam team cannot compete at My Dinh Stadium on December 15, when this time frame is only 1 week after the concert “Anh trai say hi” is performed.
To cope with the situation, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has sent a request to the AFF to organize two matches in the group stage of the AFF Cup 2024 against Indonesia (December 15) and Myanmar (December 21) at Viet Tri Stadium, Phu Tho. As soon as this request was approved by the AFF, the VFF continued to send a document requesting the People's Committee of Phu Tho province to consider and approve the assignment of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate the organization of the two above matches.
With experience in organizing international matches at the Vietnam youth team level, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Phu Tho province is also ready to ensure all conditions for organizing and operating matches, from security, medical work, stadiums and training systems to meet the requirements and standards... for the Vietnam team when competing in the group stage of the AFF Cup 2024.
"The Old Man Lost His Horse"
In addition to the quality of the stadium and facilities, the enthusiastic support of Phu Tho fans promises to fill 20,000 seats at Viet Tri Stadium when Vietnam faces Indonesia or Myanmar. The vitality of “player number 13” will be a great support to add strength to coach Kim Sang-sik’s team.
Remember, at the 31st SEA Games 2 years ago, U23 Vietnam under the leadership of predecessor Park Hang-seo also benefited a lot from Viet Tri Stadium in the journey from the group stage to the semi-finals, before returning to My Dinh Stadium and successfully defending the Gold Medal of the Games. Notably, at the beginning of that feat, U23 Vietnam won 3-0 against U23 Indonesia led by coach Shin Tae-yong himself.
In addition to the success of U23 Vietnam at the SEA Games, over the past 2 years, Viet Tri Stadium has been the place where Vietnamese youth teams have always achieved good results every time they compete. At the U17 level, most recently, coach Cristiano Roland's students excellently won tickets to the 2025 AFC U17 Finals, despite having to face tough opponents in the qualifying round.
More than a year ago, senior players such as Cong Phuong, Long Vu, and Trong Tuan also played impressively in the 2023 U17 Asian qualifiers at Viet Tri Stadium. Most notably, the convincing 3-0 victory of U17 Vietnam when hosting U17 Thailand at the "sacred land". In addition, the U20 Vietnam and U23 Vietnam teams have played friendly matches at Viet Tri Stadium in recent years. Against Myanmar or Palestine, the Vietnamese youth teams were undefeated.
Not only men's football, young women's players are also lucky when playing in their homeland. In the first qualifying round of the 2024 AFC U20 Women's Championship, coach Akira Ijiri's students easily finished second in the group to qualify for the next round.
A series of positive matches of the Vietnam National Team at all levels at Viet Tri Stadium over the past 2 years has been the foundation for building more confidence and great motivation for Kim Sang-sik and his team. Not playing at My Dinh Stadium in the group stage is considered an opportunity for the Vietnam National Team to compete in the "sacred land", where the "Golden Star Warriors" have never been defeated.
