Interesting coincidence helps U.17 Vietnam dream of World Cup

Beautiful memories of U.17 Vietnam

Vietnam U17 fell into a difficult group at the 2025 AFC U17 Championship, when they had to compete with Japan U17, Australia U17 and UAE U17. While Japan U17 is the reigning Asian champion, Australia U17 has reached the semi-finals three times, and UAE U17 is also formidable because UAE football has long been a force in the Gulf region.

However, at the U.17 level, when the players are still very young and have not yet formed a complete technical and tactical mindset, surprises can absolutely happen. U.17 Vietnam is a living proof.

In 2016, U.17 Vietnam (then called U.16 due to the format of the Asian Football Confederation) was in the same group with U.17 Japan, U.17 Australia and U.17 Kyrgyzstan.

U.17 Vietnam (white shirt) participates in the Asian finals

Coach Dinh The Nam's players lost 0-7 to U.17 Japan in the first round, then faced U.17 Australia and were behind. However, with nothing left to lose, Huynh Sang and his teammates turned the tables to win 3-2. Then in the final match, U.17 Vietnam beat U.17 Kyrgyzstan to win a ticket to the quarter-finals. Although they lost 0-5 to U.17 Iran in the quarter-finals and missed out on a ticket to the World Cup, it was still a beautiful journey for the young Vietnamese players.

After 9 years, U.17 Vietnam will meet U.17 Japan and U.17 Australia again. Although the challenges in Asia are always fierce, the memorable memories of 9 years ago will be the motivation for coach Cristiano Roland and his team to create a surprise.

At the 2025 AFC U-17 Championship, the teams that make it to the quarter-finals will automatically qualify for the 2025 U-17 World Cup (as the FIFA increased the number of spots for the U-17 World Cup to 48 teams). A World Cup spot is just a stone's throw away from Vietnam U-17's chances of making it past the group stage.

Quickly 'finalize' the coaching staff for U.17 Vietnam

Coach Cristiano Roland led the U.17 Vietnam team throughout the friendly match in China (a tournament in which the U.17 Vietnam team won both the U.17 Japan team and the U.17 Uzbekistan team). He was appointed to the coaching position after coach Tran Minh Chien left this group of players due to the failure in the U.16 Southeast Asia tournament 2024.

With the right training and inspiration methods, Mr. Roland and his students made a splash when they finished second in the Peace Cup friendly tournament, then completed the target of qualifying for the 2025 U.17 Asia Championship by beating U.17 Myanmar (2-0), drawing U.17 Yemen (1-1) and U.17 Kyrgyzstan (0-0). U.17 Vietnam advanced as one of the best second-place teams.

Coach Roland

Initially, Mr. Roland planned to return to coach the Hanoi U.17 team, then join the Vietnam U.17 team in February to prepare for the 2025 AFC U.17 Championship finals. However, Coach Roland was appointed as the Technical Director (GDKT) of Da Nang Club at the end of last year. Then, in the most recent round, Mr. Roland was registered as the Head Coach, and Mr. Phan Thanh Hung changed from Coach to Technical Director.

As coach Roland is busy with Da Nang FC in the relegation race, Vietnam U17 is likely to be led by a new "captain". The Vietnam Football Federation needs to quickly complete the coaching team for the U17 team, to play well in the first important international tournament for Vietnamese youth in 2025.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/trung-hop-thu-vi-giup-u17-viet-nam-mo-mong-world-cup-185250124185403525.htm