Southeast Asian football teams have just gone through a relatively successful qualifying round for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship with 4 representatives participating in the final round.
U23 Vietnam entered the 2024 AFC U23 Championship with an undefeated record.
Notably, three of the four teams, U23 Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, advanced as group winners. Meanwhile, U23 Malaysia qualified as one of the best second-placed teams.
Despite entering the finals with the top spot in Group C and an unbeaten record (2 wins, 1 draw), coach Troussier and his team were still criticized by the Indonesian media.
Specifically, CNN Indonesia said that although they were in a not-so-difficult group, what U23 Vietnam showed was very unconvincing.
“Indonesia is the Southeast Asian representative with the strongest performance in the AFC U23 qualifiers. Coach Shin Tae-yong's team showed superiority over other teams in the region.
The achievements of Marselino Ferdinan and his teammates are very impressive, the team won all, scored 11 goals and did not concede any. Thailand is the team with the closest achievement to U23 Indonesia. Meanwhile, U23 Vietnam is much worse.
If not counting the achievements against the bottom team, U23 Vietnam only has 4 points, scored 3 goals and conceded 2 goals," CNN commented.
By qualifying for the 2024 U23 Asian Cup, this is the 5th time the "Golden Star Warriors" have been present at the largest playground for the U23 age group of the continent.
The best achievement of U23 Vietnam in the U23 Asian tournament is reaching the final.
Meanwhile, this is the first time U23 Indonesia is present at the U23 Asian Cup.
In the upcoming tournament, U23 Vietnam is in group 2, Thailand is in group 3, while U23 Indonesia and U23 Malaysia are in the bottom group.
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