At the draw ceremony for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifying round this afternoon (May 25), Vietnam U23 fell into a fairly easy group with Singapore, Yemen and Guam.
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| U23 Vietnam competes in Group C of the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers. (Source: AFC Asian Cup) |
As the host of Group C of the qualifying round, U23 Vietnam is also the seed of this group. Coach Troussier's team is in Group 1 before the draw, certainly avoiding a series of strong teams such as Japan, Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Uzbekistan, Iraq, or the arch-rival in Southeast Asia, Thailand.
In the worst case, in theory, U23 Vietnam could fall into a group with Iran (group 2 of the qualifying round), China (group 3), and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (group 4).
However, this worst case scenario did not happen, coach Troussier's team was in the same group with Guam (from group 4), Yemen (from group 3) and the same region team Singapore (group 2).
This is a relatively "easy" group for U23 Vietnam. Among the 3 opponents of coach Troussier's team in the qualifying round, Guam comes from a very weak football background, Singapore is not strong in youth football, because they do not advocate using naturalized players in the youth teams.
Meanwhile, Yemen, despite possessing a squad of players with typical West Asian qualities, has been significantly weakened by domestic instability over the past several years.
The 43 teams participating in the qualifying round were divided into 11 groups by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), of which 10 qualifying groups had 4 teams, and the 11th group had only 3 teams.
The 11 top teams in each qualifying group, along with the four best second-placed teams, will qualify for the final round of the AFC U23 Championship in Qatar.
Qatar also qualified in Group B, along with South Korea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, but their results will be excluded when calculating the overall results for the teams seeking a ticket to the finals.
Group H is the most interesting group in the qualifying round, because there are 3 Southeast Asian teams present in this group, including host Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines, besides Bangladesh.
Thailand and Malaysia just met at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia, with Thailand winning 2-0.
The new SEA Games 32 champion Indonesia is in Group K with only 3 teams including Turkmenistan, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei. This is not a difficult group for coach Indra Sjafri's team.
Meanwhile, Cambodia has little chance in Group J, with the presence of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Mongolia.
The same is the case with Laos in Group I, which includes Australia, Tajikistan and North Korea. The remaining Southeast Asian team Timor Leste is in Group F with Iraq, Kuwait and Macau China.
The qualifying round is scheduled to take place from September 4-12 this year, while the AFC U23 Championship finals will take place from April 15 to May 3 next year in Qatar. The AFC U23 Championship finals also serve as qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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| Ranking of Asian U23 teams. (Source: VFF) |
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| As host and seed group number 1, the draw put U23 Vietnam in position number 1 of group C. |
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| Results of the draw for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifying round. (Source: VFF) |
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