Overcoming barriers
Before the 2024 ASEAN Cup took place, the Vietnam national teams had just gone through a period of crisis.
In the first half of 2024, the Vietnam national team under coach Troussier was eliminated from the group stage of the 2023 Asian Cup and stopped at the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup.
When Mr. Kim Sang-sik took office, the Vietnamese team still had many doubts, especially after the last two matches of the World Cup qualifiers in June 2024. At that time, fans put their trust in the national youth teams. However, this expectation was not rewarded.
The U16 Vietnam team played unstably and could not extend their achievement in the finals of the U16 Southeast Asian tournament. After that, coach Tran Minh Chien and his team continued to lose to U16 Indonesia in the third-place match.
Meanwhile, U19 Vietnam soon stopped in the group stage of the U19 Southeast Asian Championship. In addition, also under the guidance of coach Hua Hien Vinh, U20 Vietnam (the core force still the U19 players) once again failed in the U20 Asian qualifiers and could not win a ticket to the finals.
The rare bright spot in Vietnamese football at that time came from U17 Vietnam. Despite facing many pressures after the failures of the U16, U19 and U20 teams, coach Cristiano Roland and his team had a pretty good performance to qualify and win tickets to the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals.
Determined to win a ticket to the World Cup
The U17 World Cup being held for 5 consecutive years, starting from 2025, is a golden period for teams in the developing football community like Vietnam to think about the world arena.
Moreover, the door to the World Cup for Asian representatives is also more open. According to the charter, just in the group of two top teams each in the U17 Asian finals, the ticket to the U17 World Cup will be present. Therefore, the goal that U17 Vietnam is one of the two leading positions in Group B.
However, the challenge for U17 Vietnam is not easy. Coach Cristiano Roland's team is predicted to face many difficulties as the opponents are all very strong, respectively U17 Australia, U17 Japan and U17 UAE.
Overall, U17 Japan is considered the strongest team in the group. They have a quality squad and positive friendly results. Although they have only gathered since the end of March, coach Hiroyama Nozomi and his team did not take much time to put the team on track.
Meanwhile, U17 Australia and U17 UAE are two direct competitors of U17 Vietnam. These representatives all have a core force with experience, physical strength and physique superior to Mr. Roland's students.
However, youth football is full of surprises. Last year, U17 Vietnam surprised everyone when they defeated U17 Japan at the Peace Cup (China) or U16 Vietnam defeated U16 Australia 3-0 in 2016.
Therefore, the "Golden Star Warriors" have every basis to aim for positive matches. U17 Vietnam needs to be confident, proactive and choose the right playing style against different opponents.
