Two men's soccer teams dropped out of ASIAD 19

Syria and Afghanistan withdrew from the men's football event of the 19th Asian Games today, September 18, one day before the tournament started.

Syria said there was an error in registering the squad for the 19th Asian Games and requested to replace the players. The organizing committee rejected the request because according to the regulations, teams are only allowed to choose players from the preliminary list of 30 players registered with the organizing committee from March 2023. Therefore, Syria withdrew with an apology to the host China. Meanwhile, Afghanistan has not announced the reason.

In the previous round, Afghanistan did not participate. Syria reached the quarter-finals before losing 0-1 to Vietnam after 120 minutes. The scorer was Nguyen Van Toan.

Afghanistan U23 team. Photo: AFC

With two teams withdrawing, Group C is left with only Uzbekistan and Hong Kong. The two teams will play two matches on September 22 and September 25. Previously, Cambodia was the first team to withdraw before the draw took place.

Initially, with 23 teams, the organizers divided them into six groups, each with three teams. The teams played a round-robin to select the six first-place teams, six second-place teams, and the four best third-place teams to advance to the round of 16. Since the first round of matches will take place tomorrow, September 19, it is difficult for the organizers to make changes, so Uzbekistan and Hong Kong automatically advanced.

Other teams in the group also benefit from the loss of one competitor for the third place with the best record. In group B, Vietnam is ranked lower than Saudi Arabia and Iran but higher than Mongolia. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team need to beat Mongolia, get at least one point against the other two opponents and minimize the loss to have a good chance of advancing.

Vietnam flew to Hangzhou, China on September 16. The team has three days to adapt to the climate and field before entering the opening match against Mongolia at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, September 19, at the Linping Sports Center Stadium.

Hieu Luong

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