The Asian Cup is full of great players, do the two strongest clubs in Vietnam have a chance to "show off"?

Nam Dinh will participate in the AFC Champions League 2 (formerly known as the AFC Cup) as the 2024-2025 V-League champions, while Thanh Hoa will participate in this tournament as the National Cup champions.

Vietnamese football clubs will participate in the groups in the East Asia region.

Nam Dinh (white) and Thanh Hoa team participate in Asian playground

MINH TU

The group stage draw will take place on August 16, while the group stage begins on September 17. In the eastern region, the strongest teams can be mentioned as Sanfrecce Hiroshima (3rd place in Japan's J-League 1 in 2023), Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (4th place in Korea's K-League 1 in 2023), Port Authority FC (3rd place in Thailand's Thai-League 1, 2023-2024 season) and Sydney FC (2023 Australian Cup champions).

As long as they can avoid these teams in the group stage, or not be in the same group with 2 of the 4 above teams at the same time, the chance of advancing for the representatives of Vietnamese football will be quite high.

Nam Dinh team won V-League

The remaining opponents in the eastern region include Zhejiang FC (China), Selangor (Malaysia), Lee Man, Eastern (both from Hong Kong), Kaya-Iloilo, DH Cebu (both from the Philippines), Lion City Sailors, Tampines Rovers (both from Singapore) and Persib (Indonesia) are not stronger than the Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa teams of Vietnamese football.

With the newly-crowned V-League champion Nam Dinh, this team has received great expectations. Nam Dinh owns the player who scored the most goals in the V-League in 1 season Rafaelson (31 goals). There are not many strikers in the AFC Champions League 2 this year who are as good as this.

Recently, the Southern team signed a long-term contract with midfielder Tuan Anh, until 2027. Tuan Anh is one of the most talented midfielders in Vietnamese football in the past few years. This player has a modern playing style, suitable for playing on the continental stage.

Tuan Anh had experience playing in the AFC Champions League (currently called AFC Champions League Elite, a tournament with even higher quality than AFC Champions League 2/AFC Cup) 2 seasons ago, when Tuan Anh was still playing for HAGL Club.

Tuan Anh (white shirt) signed a new 3-year contract with Nam Dinh team.

Therefore, the presence of Tuan Anh is expected to help Nam Dinh team compete stably in the Asian Cup.

In addition, Nam Dinh can retain many national players or former national players, such as Van Toan, Hong Duy, Huu Tuan, Van Vu... as their framework for the upcoming AFC Champions League 2.

In the past, there were representatives of Vietnamese football who went very far in AFC Champions League 2, that is Binh Duong team reached the semi-finals of the tournament in 2009, under coach Mai Duc Chung and Hanoi FC reached the final of the eastern region (equivalent to the semi-finals of the whole tournament) in 2019.

In those years, Binh Duong and Hanoi FC could have gone further, closer to the championship, if they had a little more luck. That reflects that Vietnamese clubs have a chance at AFC Champions League 2, if our teams prepare and compete seriously in this tournament.

The fact that V-League teams play well in AFC Champions League 2 will bring great significance to Vietnamese football. Firstly, it will help V-League gain points and rank. Secondly, the position of Vietnamese football will increase in the eyes of continental teams. Moreover, the third thing we can achieve if we play well in the Asian Cup is that Vietnamese players will have increased quality and courage in case Vietnamese teams go deep in this tournament.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cup-chau-a-toan-hang-khung-hai-clb-manh-nhat-viet-nam-co-co-hoi-bung-lua-185240717173420543.htm