'Olympic tickets are rarer than World Cup tickets', what are the chances for U.23 Vietnam?

The draw of luck put U.23 Vietnam in Group D with Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Malaysia at the 2024 AFC U-23 Championship (taking place from April 15 to May 3, 2024 in Qatar). This group is considered suitable for coach Park Hang-seo's team. It can be easily seen that U.23 Uzbekistan is the strongest name. In the last 3 tournaments, this Central Asian team has appeared in the final twice (1 championship in 2018, winning U.23 Vietnam) and ranked 4th once.

Kuwait and Malaysia are the two football nations below Vietnam (according to FIFA rankings). Commentator Ngo Quang Tung commented: "Uzbekistan still has a relatively high quality source of players and maintains stable performance in youth tournaments. Malaysia is in the same Southeast Asian region and is a bit weaker than Vietnam. Kuwait is a West Asian country, but their performance is very inconsistent. I think Kuwait will be the team that competes directly with U.23 Vietnam for a ticket to the next round."

National player Nguyen Thai Son (16) will be an important factor for U.23 Vietnam.

The 2024 AFC U23 Championship has 4 groups, each group has 4 teams. The groups will play a round-robin to calculate points and rank. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals. Vietnam U23 has many opportunities to enter the round of 8 strongest teams when falling into a group that is not too difficult. However, in football, especially youth football, nothing can be predicted. According to commentator Quang Tung, Vietnamese football has not yet been able to reach the level in Asia, so tournaments like this are always considered a challenge.

"This group is within reach and U.23 Vietnam can play. However, youth football always has many surprises. When we improve, so do others. Don't take the standard of 2018, when coach Park Hang-seo's U.23 Vietnam team reached the final, the following tournaments will be as favorable. The reality of 2020 has shown that, when U.23 Vietnam stopped right at the group stage," commentator Quang Tung affirmed.

Phan Tuan Tai (red shirt) is a U.23 player highly regarded in the Vietnam national team.

In particular, at the U.23 Asian Cup this time, the 3 best teams will win direct tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The 4th-place team will play a play-off match with representatives from the African region to compete for tickets to the Olympics. To prepare for the 2024 U.23 Asian Cup, U.23 Vietnam has made careful preparations. Coach Troussier even planned very early, when he interwoven many U.23 players into the national team to practice and compete to gain experience.

U.23 Vietnam can "dream" of the Olympic arena, but this dream is not easy to reach. Commentator Quang Tung analyzed: "A ticket to the Olympics is something that many teams are interested in. Therefore, the U.23 Asian Cup this time will be more competitive. Other countries will invest heavily, call up their best players and do everything to win the right to attend the Olympics. Tickets to the Olympics (3.5 places) are even rarer than tickets to the World Cup (8.5 places). Strong teams like Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia... will try their best to play.

Coach Troussier will lead U.23 Vietnam at the 2024 AFC U.23 Championship

Although the Olympic goal is very difficult, it is not without a percentage of chance for Vietnam. I think, if U.23 Vietnam passes the group stage and is present in the quarter-finals, there will be hope. Because when entering the knockout round, it becomes a different story. When reaching the quarter-finals, the players' confidence is greater and the accumulation is also greater."

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