Expert: "U23 Vietnam cannot be subjective against Kyrgyzstan and Jordan"

According to the draw results for the final round of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, the Vietnam U23 team is in Group A with the host team Saudi Arabia, along with Jordan and Kyrgyzstan.

According to former VFF Vice President Duong Vu Lam, this is a group where the U23 Vietnam team can compete fairly with Jordan and Kyrgyzstan to compete for a ticket to the quarterfinals. However, we cannot be subjective, especially against West Asian teams.

Yesterday afternoon (October 2), Mr. Duong Vu Lam talked with Dan Tri reporter . Mr. Lam analyzed the situation of group A, as well as compared the strength of the current U23 Vietnam team, compared to the teams in the group, as well as compared to ourselves at the time of creating the miracle in the final match of the 2018 tournament.

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U23 Vietnam fell into a "playable" group at the U23 Asian tournament (Photo: Do Minh Quan).

The easiest group possible

What do you think about the group of U23 Vietnam? Will we fall into an easy group at the 2026 U23 Asian Cup?

- In theory, U23 Saudi Arabia is the strongest team in this group. They are representatives of the top football in Asia, and have the home field advantage. Saudi Arabia is likely to win the first ticket of Group A to enter the quarterfinals. The remaining ticket will be competed between 3 teams U23 Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Jordan.

Among these, U23 Jordan is the name that U23 Vietnam must pay special attention to. West Asian teams often mature very quickly at the age of 23. First, they already have advantages in terms of physique, physical strength, and speed compared to Southeast Asian teams.

Next, at the age of 23, the West Asian players have played professionally for a long time, so they have a lot of experience. If the U23 Vietnam players let down their guard, we can pay the price when facing U23 Jordan. We must have reasonable tactics and reasonable playing style when facing West Asian teams like this.

What about U23 Kyrgyzstan, are they a difficult barrier to overcome for U23 Vietnam?

- Kyrgyzstan is not a very strong football team in Asia. In terms of quality, Kyrgyzstan players are not much different from Vietnamese players. They are not too tall, not too fast, so their playing style does not physically "torture" the U23 Vietnam players.

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Coach Kim Sang Sikj's players are ready to head to the continental finals (Photo: Do Minh Quan).

Of course, whether we can beat Kyrgyzstan or not at the upcoming U23 Asian Cup depends on us. The performance and fitness of U23 Vietnam during the tournament must be really good.

However, it cannot be denied that U23 Vietnam being in the same group with U23 Jordan or Kyrgyzstan is still much better than having to be in the same group with teams like Japan, Iran, UAE, teams that in theory could have been in the same group with U23 Vietnam, before the draw.

Preparation is different from qualifying

You have talked many times about the physical strength of the U23 Vietnam players before the U23 Asian Cup finals. How important is this factor, sir?

- Extremely important, the nature of the final round is completely different from the qualifying round that took place in early September. In the final round, most of the teams are strong teams, there are no easy matches in the final round. Moreover, the competition schedule is quite dense, requiring U23 Vietnam to have good physical strength and be flexible to go through many matches in a short period of time.

We saw how hard U23 Vietnam struggled when facing U23 Yemen in the qualifying round. In the final round, most of the teams are stronger than Yemen, in terms of physical strength and technique, so the U23 Vietnam team must be ready for matches that are much more difficult than the match against Yemen in the qualifying round.

In the group stage, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have strong playing styles, not afraid of collision. If we pass the group stage, U23 Vietnam may face teams like Iraq, Iran, Australia, Korea, Uzbekistan, which are also very fast and very strong teams, not afraid of collision. If we are not physically fit, we will not be able to keep up with the speed of these teams, not to mention technical or tactical issues.

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Young players need to be well prepared physically before the AFC U23 Championship (Photo: Do Minh Quan).

Will the AFC U23 Championship Finals (from January 7 to January 25, 2026) taking place right after the 33rd SEA Games (from December 9 to December 20 this year) affect the physical strength of the Vietnamese U23 players?

- Actually, this is not a strange thing in the professional football world. If the coach knows how to adjust and rotate the team flexibly, this will not be a big problem.

Vietnamese football currently has enough young players to rotate the squad. V-League has many players in the 23-year-old age group, capable of playing for the Vietnam U23 team in the two upcoming important tournaments including the 33rd SEA Games and the 2026 AFC U23 Championship.

Many domestic clubs have created conditions for our young players to play regularly in the V-League, so they have recently made rapid progress. Currently, gathering about 30 players of good to good quality for two tournaments including the SEA Games and the U23 Asian Cup is not too big a problem for U23 Vietnam.

Equal to the "White Snow Changzhou" generation

If you compare the current generation with the Vietnam U23 team that reached the final of the 2018 U23 Asian Cup, how do you evaluate the current team compared to the team of the same generation nearly 8 years ago?

- In terms of uniformity, the current generation of U23 Vietnam is not inferior to the team of 2018. However, in 2018, the U23 Vietnam team that year had a few individuals who stood out from the rest such as Quang Hai, Cong Phuong, Doan Van Hau...

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U23 Vietnam is currently quite even (Photo: Do Minh Quan).

That was the lucky factor of the 2018 generation. In fact, the U23 squad that year was a combination of two successive generations of talented players, including the generation of Cong Phuong, Xuan Truong, Van Thanh, Van Toan, central defender Bui Tien Dung, and the generation of Quang Hai, Dinh Trong, Doan Van Hau, Ha Duc Chinh, goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung...

The next lucky point was that year a series of young players were able to participate in the 2017 U20 World Cup, under the guidance of coach Hoang Anh Tuan, so Quang Hai, Doan Van Hau, and Dinh Trong had remarkable growth after the U20 World Cup a year before.

Does this mean that the more young players get to play in big tournaments, the faster they will progress?

- Definitely so. That's why I said that the increasing number of 23-year-old players appearing in the V-League is a very good sign for the Vietnam U23 team before the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, or even before that, the 33rd SEA Games.

Besides, with a football foundation as weak as Vietnam's, it is very difficult to continuously produce talents like Nguyen Quang Hai. He is both technical and cunning, and at times he plays as well as Asian players, such as at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship. Such a special player does not always appear, and not every generation can have one.

So, let's not put too much pressure on the young players. As I said, the current generation of U23 Vietnam is still uniform, not to mention we also have a Dinh Bac who plays quite cleverly in the front line. So, the young players can play confidently. The task of helping them develop their individual abilities to the best of their abilities and promote the collective abilities will be carried out by the coach.

Thank you for the conversation!

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