Latest U.23 Vietnam match schedule: Face off against Qatar at extremely late hour, no station will broadcast

U.23 Vietnam needs to prove its mettle against West Asian teams like Saudi Arabia or Jordan if it wants to go far in the 2026 AFC U.23 Championship. To hone the strength of U.23 Vietnam, VFF sent the team to the UAE and the team had 2 friendly matches with U.23 Qatar.

HIGH MOUNTAINS WAIT FOR U.23 Vietnam

Yesterday, October 7, U.23 Vietnam left for the UAE for training. Acting head coach Dinh Hong Vinh and his team will have two friendly matches with U.23 Qatar during their training in West Asia. This is a particularly important trip, in the context that U.23 Vietnam is in group A with U.23 Saudi Arabia, U.23 Jordan and U.23 Kyrgyzstan.

After 5 years, U.23 Vietnam is in a group with 2/3 opponents from West Asia. At the U.23 Asian playground, Gulf football brought U.23 Vietnam more sad memories than happy ones.

U.23 Vietnam is ready to overcome mountains

Photo: VFF

In 2016, U.23 Vietnam lost all 3 matches, including defeats against U.23 Jordan (1-3) and U.23 UAE (2-3), thereby stopping at the group stage. In 2020, U.23 Vietnam drew U.23 Jordan (0-0) and U.23 UAE (0-0), being eliminated with 2 points after 3 matches.

In 2022, U.23 Vietnam stopped before U.23 Saudi Arabia, another West Asian representative, with a 0-2 loss in the quarter-finals. In 2024, U.23 Vietnam broke the West Asian "curse" when it beat U.23 Kuwait (2-0) in the group stage, but then continued to be eliminated by U.23 Iraq (a Gulf team), after a 0-1 loss in the quarter-finals.

The only season that U.23 Vietnam was truly the "nemesis" of West Asian teams was the 2018 AFC U.23 Championship. Here, coach Park Hang-seo's team drew U.23 Syria (0-0) in the group stage, then defeated U.23 Iraq and U.23 Qatar on penalties in the quarter-finals and semi-finals to win the runner-up position.

Acting Head Coach Dinh Hong Vinh

However, it is necessary to recognize that the 2018 AFC U23 Championship is a tournament where Vietnamese youth football has played beyond their limits to create a miracle. And a miracle is hard to expect to appear many times. In recent finals such as 2022 and 2024, Vietnam U23 played to their full potential, reaching the quarterfinals and then being eliminated by West Asian teams.

Obviously, the gap in skill level between the team under coach Kim Sang-sik and the U.23 Saudi Arabia, U.23 Iraq or U.23 Jordan teams is still a difficult problem. The common point of the defeats against West Asian opponents of Vietnamese football has always been physical strength and power. Young Vietnamese players are agile, skillful, have good individual skills, but are weak in one-on-one disputes. At the same time, U.23 Vietnam in recent tournaments also did not have enough physical strength to compete with opponents until the last seconds. As a result, every time they conceded a goal, Khuat Van Khang and his teammates had almost no hope of a comeback.

V EXCEEDING THE THRESHOLD

Coach Kim Sang-sik probably understands that with limited training time (only about 10-12 days per month), he cannot single-handedly improve his students' physical fitness.

Although Mr. Kim's intense training program without the ball has helped U.23 Vietnam become more solid, it is difficult to expect an impressive breakthrough in the players' physical strength if only relying on the Korean coach. The players need to be built on a foundation from the club, and Mr. Kim only takes advantage of the best.

Young players always have high determination.

During the remaining 3 months, coach Kim Sang-sik and his coaching team (led by acting head coach Dinh Hong Vinh) have identified key tasks such as: improving the quality of passes, team distance and controlling the space behind the defense.

When they cannot compete head-to-head, U.23 Vietnam must choose a smart way to play. Defending at a reasonable distance, ensuring close links between the lines to cover, catch people, pass the ball well to convert the state from defense to attack (and vice versa), at the same time avoiding revealing gaps when advancing..., that is the path that Mr. Park's U.23 Vietnam took to write a fairy tale in Changzhou 7 years ago.

It is very difficult for U.23 Vietnam to repeat the miracle, but in the youth playground, coach Kim's students only need to be better than themselves, surpassing their own limits. No matter how high the West Asian "mountain" is, the whole team is ready to conquer it.

Two useful friendly matches in UAE

Sharing before the team left for the UAE for training, acting head coach Dinh Hong Vinh said: “U.23 Vietnam is still on track towards the 33rd SEA Games and the 2026 AFC U.23 Championship. In the immediate future, the team will have different training periods to test and perfect its squad. For this October training session alone, head coach Kim Sang-sik discussed very specifically about technical matters. The team needs to focus on passing ability, maintaining a reasonable formation distance and creating space behind the defense line.”

During the training period in the UAE, the U23 Vietnam team will play two international friendly matches with U23 Qatar, on October 9 and 13 (both at 7 p.m. local time, or 10 p.m. Vietnam time). This is also the time slot that U23 Vietnam will compete in the U23 Asian Cup.

According to coach Dinh Hong Vinh, this is a valuable opportunity for the team to test and evaluate its strength: “Meeting high-level opponents like U.23 Qatar is very useful. These two matches will help the coaching staff better assess potential, adaptability and identify more quality players to report to head coach Kim Sang-sik, thereby preparing well for the next training sessions.”

Because it is a friendly match in a foreign country, there will be no television rights and no station will broadcast it in Vietnam.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lich-thi-dau-u23-viet-nam-moi-nhat-cham-tran-qatar-gio-cuc-muon-khong-dai-nao-phat-song-185251007195636502.htm