AFC praises Cong Phuong and U17 Vietnam before U17 Asian Cup

Nguyen Cong Phuong praised by AFC

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) homepage has released a list of stars expected to shine at the 2023 AFC U17 Championship finals held in Thailand.

The player of the Vietnam U17 team chosen by AFC is captain Nguyen Cong Phuong.

“The midfielder promises to have a successful career after leading Vietnam U17 to the final round of the AFC U17 Championship with an excellent performance,” the AFC website wrote before the tournament officially kicked off.

“In addition to his leadership qualities as a captain, this midfielder also contributes goals. Vietnam will put their trust in Cong Phuong in the goal of having a successful tournament."

In the U17 Asian qualifiers, the midfielder born in 2006 shone brightly to help his team advance to the top of the group with 9 absolute points after 3 wins - scoring 12 goals and not conceding any.

Captain Nguyen Cong Phuong contributed two goals, including the goal that broke the deadlock to open a big victory for U17 Vietnam against U17 Thailand in the decisive match of Group F.

After helping U17 Vietnam advance, Nguyen Cong Phuong continued to shine and scored 1 goal to help U17 Viettel defeat U17 Hong Linh Ha Tinh 4-2 in the final match of the 2023 National U17.

The achievement helped U17 Viettel win the National U17 Championship for the second time after winning the championship in 2018.

Most recently, Cong Phuong also played impressively during the training trip to Qatar and Japan of U17 Vietnam to prepare for the 2023 U17 Asian finals. The midfielder from Hai Duong scored a goal in the 2-0 victory over U17 Qatar.

The solid defense helped U17 Vietnam win all the matches and not concede any goals in the qualifying round.

Not only Cong Phuong, AFC's homepage also highly appreciated U17 Vietnam after keeping a clean sheet in the qualifying round. In addition to U17 Vietnam, three other teams also achieved this feat: U17 Japan (+15), U17 Yemen (+18) and U17 Tajikistan (+5).

“Vietnam U17, Japan U17, Yemen U17 and Tajikistan U17 have shown solid defensive ability in the qualifying round. They are the ones who have won tickets to the 2023 AFC U17 Championship without conceding a single goal,” the AFC website wrote.

AFC also praised Vietnam and other teams including Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Australia, Tajikistan, Iran and Uzbekistan for winning all qualifying matches.

In the 2023 AFC U17 qualifiers held last October, the Vietnam U17 team played impressively to defeat Chinese Taipei U17 4-0, Nepal U17 5-0 and Thailand U17 3-0.

At the 2023 AFC U17 Championship finals, the Vietnam team is in Group D with the U17 Japan, U17 Uzbekistan and U17 India teams.

According to the schedule, coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team will play all three group stage matches at Thammasat Stadium. Vietnam U17 will play against India U17 at 7pm on June 17, then Japan U17 (5pm on June 20) and Uzbekistan U17 (7pm on June 23).

Japan U17 and Uzbekistan U17 are two of the undefeated teams in the qualifying round. Notably, Japan U17 are still the current champions of the tournament, having won the tournament in Malaysia in 2018 (not held in 2020).

In this year's tournament, teams compete in a round-robin format to determine rankings in each group. The first and second teams in each group will advance to the quarter-finals.

The four winning teams in the quarter-finals will advance to the semi-finals and also qualify as Asian representatives to the U17 World Cup finals.

As planned, at 8:45 a.m. on June 14, U17 Vietnam will board a flight to Thailand to attend the 2023 U17 Asian Finals (taking place from June 15 to July 2).

Right before departure, coach Hoang Anh Tuan also announced the shortlist of 24 U17 Vietnam players leaving for Thailand to attend the 2023 AFC U17 Championship finals, including 3 goalkeepers, 10 defenders, 6 midfielders and 5 strikers.

According to plan, coach Hoang Anh Tuan will officially finalize the list of 23 U17 Vietnam players participating in the tournament before officially entering the competition.

According to Vietnam+