Before the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, taking place in Saudi Arabia from January 6 to 24, the homepage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has released noteworthy information.
Record waiting for U23 Japan
U23 Japan became the first team to win the AFC U23 Championship twice, after being crowned in 2024. In this year's qualifying round, the East Asian team easily topped Group B with 11 goals and only conceded 2 goals. If they continue to win the championship in Saudi Arabia, U23 Japan will be the first team to defend their title in this arena.
Team with the most goals, the fewest
U23 Japan is not the team that scored the most goals in the qualifiers, that honor belongs to U23 Australia with 20 goals. Only one goal behind Jordan, while Qatar (17) is also the team that scored the most goals in the qualifiers. U23 Vietnam - with only 4 goals - is the team that scored the fewest goals among the 11 top teams in the qualifying group.
Perfect achievement of U23 Vietnam
However, U23 Vietnam, with perfect form, is among the seven teams with perfect qualifying campaigns when winning all matches, on par with U23 Jordan, Japan, Qatar, Iran, South Korea and Syria.
In addition, coach Kim Sang-sik's team is also one of the 3 teams that did not concede a goal in the qualifiers, alongside U23 Korea and U23 Australia. The solid defense is the foundation for U23 Vietnam to confidently aim for the finals.
Expectations for U23 Vietnam, Thailand
Three of the AFC regional federations had champions in the previous six tournaments, with U23 Japan (in 2016, 2024) and South Korea (2020) raising the trophy for East Asia. U23 Iraq (2013) and Saudi Arabia (2022) did that for the Western region, while Uzbekistan represented Central Asia in 2018.
No team in South Asia qualifies to participate in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, but Southeast Asia has 2 representatives participating, U23 Vietnam and U23 Thailand. According to AFC, much attention will be focused on U23 Vietnam and Thailand, to see if they are strong enough to create a title race with opponents.
Record of U23 Korea
U23 South Korea always passed the group stage in all previous participations, with at least reaching the semi-finals in the first four tournaments. Even U23 Japan could not compare with the team in the same region in this achievement, when they were eliminated in the group stage in 2020.
New recruits
U23 Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon will participate in the AFC U23 Championship for the first time, raising the total number of teams participating in the finals to 27. Both teams set a goal to surpass the achievements of Indonesia, this Southeast Asian team has ranked fourth in their first participation in the tournament two years ago.
