Beautiful memories of U.17 Vietnam
U.17 Vietnam falls into a difficult group at the 2025 Asian U.17 tournament, when they have to compete against U.17 Japan, U.17 Australia and U.17 UAE. While Japan U.17 is the reigning Asian champion, Australia U.17 has reached the semi-finals three times, and UAE U.17 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 very young and have not yet formed complete technical and tactical thinking, surprises can completely happen. U.17 Vietnam is living proof.
In 2016, U.17 Vietnam (then also called U.16 due to the format of the Asian Football Confederation) was in the same group as 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 students lost 0-7 to Japan U.17 in the first round, then met Australia U.17 and were led by their opponents. 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 defeated U.17 Kyrgyzstan to win a ticket to the quarterfinals. Even though they lost 0-5 to U.17 Iran in the quarterfinals and missed out on tickets to the World Cup, it was still a beautiful journey for young Vietnamese players.
After 9 years, U.17 Vietnam reunited U.17 Japan and U.17 Australia. 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 U.17 Asian Finals, teams that reach the quarterfinals will automatically have tickets to attend the 2025 U.17 World Cup (because the World Football Federation increased the number of places to attend the U.17 World Cup finals to 48 teams). ). Qualifying for the World Cup is just a step away from U.17 Vietnam reaching the group stage.
Quickly ‘finalize’ the coaching staff for U.17 Vietnam
Coach Cristiano Roland led U.17 Vietnam during the friendly match in China (a tournament in which U.17 Vietnam won both U.17 Japan and U.17 Uzbekistan). He was assigned to the coaching chair after coach Tran Minh Chien said goodbye to this group of players due to failure in the 2024 U.16 Southeast Asia tournament.
With appropriate training and inspiration methods, Mr. Roland and his students made a splash by finishing second in the Peace Cup friendly tournament, then completed the target of qualifying for the 2025 Asian U.17 qualifiers by winning against U.17. Myanmar (2-0), drew with Yemen U.17 (1-1) and Kyrgyzstan U.17 (0-0). U.17 Vietnam continues 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 U.17 Vietnam in February to prepare for the 2025 U.17 Asian finals. However, the coach Roland was appointed technical director (technical director) of Da Nang Club since the end of last year. Then in the most recent round, Mr. Roland was again registered as head coach, and Mr. Phan Thanh Hung became technical director from coach.
Because coach Roland is busy with Da Nang Club racing to stay relegated, U.17 Vietnam is likely to be led by a new “captain”. The Vietnam Football Federation needs to soon complete the training team for the U.17 team, to play well in the first important international tournament for Vietnamese youth in 2025.
