U16 team to compete in ASEAN football in Japan
The national U16 team will compete in an international friendly tournament, ASEAN 2018, to be held in Miyazaki, Japan from March 8-12.
The event will attract the participation of 12 teams. The hosts will have two representatives: Japanese U15 team and Miyazaki. Ten U16 teams will come from ASEAN countries including Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Việt Nam are drawn in Group D with Laos and Miyazaki. Group A includes Japanese U15 team, Timor Leste and Malaysia. Group B gathers Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia while Singapore, Brunei and Thailand are in Group C.
The teams will compete in a round robin format to choose the best team in each group to reach to the semi-finals.
Coach Đinh Thế Nam named 18 players to train for the event. Most of them took part in the AFF U15 Championship 2017 in which Việt Nam won the title.
The tournament in Japan will be a warm up for the Vietnamese team in preparation for the final round of 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U16 Championship in Malaysia from September 20 to October 7.
The Việt Nam U16 squad secured a ticket to the AFC’s finals after being one of the top six second-placed teams in qualification matches.
