According to the latest announcement, the matches in Group C will be moved from 700th Anniversary Stadium (Chiang Mai) to Rajamangala Stadium in the capital Bangkok.
This change has caused the 4 teams in Group C including U22 Indonesia, U22 Myanmar, U22 Philippines and U22 Singapore to no longer move to Chiang Mai, but will play at Rajamangala Stadium with a capacity of more than 51,000 seats. Meanwhile, Group B - where U22 Vietnam is located, will only play at the 700th Anniversary Stadium with matches against U22 Laos and U22 Malaysia.
The fact that the two groups no longer play on the same field affects the work of the U22 Vietnam coaching staff to observe the opponents.
Coach Kim Sang-sik will have to adjust the opponent analysis plan as well as the training schedule, because the team's competition schedule will also change.
Accordingly, instead of having the first break to watch the match between Malaysia and Laos, U22 Vietnam will have to take the field in the opening match against U22 Laos at 6:30 p.m. on December 5.
After that, U22 Malaysia will play the first match against Laos on December 8, while the match between U22 Vietnam and U22 Malaysia will take place at 6:30 p.m. on December 11, deciding the ticket to the semi-finals.
Notably, the host team Thailand did not play in Bangkok but chose Tinsulanon Stadium (Songkhla) as the main venue with a capacity of about 30,000 spectators.
According to the plan, after the group stage ends, the top three teams and the best second-placed teams will travel to Bangkok to compete in the semi-finals and finals at Rajamangala Stadium.
This adjustment is considered to help the host country more facilitate the organization, but has caused many teams, including U22 Vietnam, to change the entire schedule and plan to prepare for the journey to conquer the gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games.
