On the evening of February 18, U20 Vietnam had a friendly match with U20 Saudi Arabia within the framework of a training trip in West Asia. The friendly match is considered to be the momentum of coach Hoang Anh Tuan’s teachers and students towards the AFC U20 Championship in March. Before a very strong opponent who was crowned 3 times in the U20/U19 Asia tournament, the red shirt army played well and defeated this opponent with a score of 2-1.
The victory of U20 Vietnam surprised the Indonesian press. Sheet She was Sport of Indonesia published an article with the headline: “U20 Vietnam humiliated the defending Asian U20 champion, alarming the army of coach Shin Tae-yong”.
The Indonesian newspaper wrote: “It was a surprise when U20 Vietnam won once morest the reigning U20 Asian champion, U20 Saudi Arabia.”
Bola Sport newspaper stated that Saudi Arabia U20 is the 2018 continental tournament champion: “The result won by Vietnam U20 is an alarm bell for Indonesia U20 because the two teams have the opportunity to clash at the U20 Asian Finals. Accordingly, the two teams are likely to face off in the quarterfinals. This scenario will happen with the case that U20 Indonesia topped Group A and U20 Vietnam ranked second in Group B and vice versa.
“However, this scenario can be said to be very unlikely for both teams. As you know, both U20 Vietnam and U20 Indonesia fall into difficult groups at the Asian U20 finals. U20 Indonesia is in Group A. along with hosts U20 Uzbekistan, U20 Iraq and U20 Syria, meanwhile, U20 Vietnam is in Group B along with U20 Qatar, U20 Australia and U20 Iran.the Indonesian newspaper continued.
Meanwhile, U20 Indonesia is also busy preparing for the upcoming Asian U20 finals. The team of thousands of islands has just had 2 friendly matches with the result of 1 loss and 1 win. Coach Shin Tae-yong’s students defeated Fiji U20 4-0 in a controversial match with 4 red cards and lost close to New Zealand 1-2 in the encounter last night on February 19.