U.23 Vietnam and hopes from V-League

Group C of the U.23 Asian qualifiers will kick off in September at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho) and coach Kim Sang-sik is checking the form and looking for more players for the U.23 Vietnam team from the domestic tournament. The V-League 2025 - 2026, which has just opened, will be a good environment for young players to train and mature.

OPTIMISTIC SIGNAL

In previous years, the coaching staff of the U.23 Vietnam teams always complained about the lack of opportunities for young players to regularly play in the V-League. But recently, teams have tended to use young players, and this has brought positive changes to the domestic playing field and the operation of domestic football. Firstly, the interest of clubs in training and developing young talents seems to have reached a new milestone. Clubs take care of and nurture the young generation of players (U teams) scientifically and have a fairly systematic and reasonable strategy for using them. And what is very important is that the young players have also been conscious of training hard and professionally, always wanting to prove themselves worthy of being given opportunities.

Khuat Van Khang (holding the cup) continues to play well in V-League

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

As a result, in the first round of the 2025-2026 V-League, most of the Southeast Asian U.23 champions were able to play and more or less left their mark. Goalkeeper Trung Kien was a rare bright spot for HAGL in the 0-3 defeat against Becamex TP.HCM in the opening match at home. If it weren't for the excellence of the number 1 goalkeeper of the Vietnam U.23 team, the number of goals conceded by the mountain town team would probably be higher. The central defender duo Hieu Minh and Nhat Minh both started in the first round. If Hieu Minh was a reliable stopper for PVF-CAND to overcome SLNA, Nhat Minh (Hai Phong Club) also tried very hard when facing the "terrible" strikers of Nam Dinh . Vo Anh Quan played very well in the right-back position, becoming an important piece in the impressive victory of PVF-CAND in the opening match of the V-League.

Up front, in the The Cong Viettel shirt, Khuat Van Khang has increasingly proven his maturity and won the trust of coach Popop. Another player of PVF-CAND, Xuan Bac, also played with great confidence in his first V-League debut. Striker Nguyen Dinh Bac, after scoring a beautiful goal against Nam Dinh to help Hanoi Police win the National Super Cup, continues to be coach Polking's strategic card in the biggest arena in Vietnam. In the Ha Tinh shirt, Le Viktor assisted Mai Sy Hoang to score, while Quoc Viet contributed to helping rookie Ninh Binh FC get 3 important points right on the away field.

That was a really encouraging sign for U.23 Vietnam, and of course the coaching staff, when attending the stadiums to watch the young players' performances, could have been somewhat satisfied. The notes and assessments were sent to coach Kim Sang-sik so that he could make accurate calculations and choices for the new tournament.

U.23 Asia Qualifiers and Interesting Draw

However, coach Kim and his colleagues will also have certain difficulties in the process of finding out information about the personnel or playing style of the opponents in Group C in the U.23 Asian qualifiers. U.23 Vietnam will meet U.23 Bangladesh on September 3. This opponent has not had many official matches in the recent past. That will be an unknown and could become a big challenge for the host U.23 Vietnam, because 2 years ago, the young players of the U.23 generation of this country drew with U.23 China and also only lost narrowly to U.23 Myanmar with a score of 0-1 in the U.23 Asian qualifiers.

The second match with U.23 Singapore (September 6) seems to be easier when we know quite a lot of information about the young players of the Lion Island. In all aspects, the young generation of Singapore is ranked one level lower than the leading countries in Southeast Asia. The last opponent is U.23 Yemen (on September 9) who lost to U.23 Vietnam 0-1 2 years ago.

Group C is an interesting group when U.23 Vietnam will meet again with two old opponents, U.23 Yemen and U.23 Singapore. Two years ago, we reached the U.23 Asian Cup and only lost to U.23 Iraq with a score of 0-1 in the quarter-finals. Now it will be a new tournament, a new round with the appearance of many impressive young faces. Hopefully, under the experienced guidance of coach Kim and the coaching staff, U.23 Vietnam will have a smooth start in the qualifying round before aiming for higher goals in the U.23 Asian Cup.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/u23-viet-nam-va-nhung-hy-vong-tu-v-league-185250818222212891.htm