AFF U18/U19 Championship

Winning Thailand at the penalty, Vietnam U19 won bronze at the 2022 AFF U19 Championships

In the third place match taking place on the afternoon of July 15, U19 Vietnam won U19 Thailand after the penalty. This result helped head coach Dinh The Nam’s team get a bronze medal at the 2022 AFF U19 Championship.

  16/07/2022 09:29:54

Unlike in the semi-finals, coach Dinh The Nam did not some key players such as Quoc Viet, Van Truong, and Hoang Canh in the starting list of U19 Vietnam when playing against U19 Thailand. Because of that, the operation of U19 Vietnam had some problems. In addition, U19 Thailand also clearly expressed the determination to win the honorary bronze medal of the tournament. These factors made U19 Vietnam experience an difficult half compared to the opponent.

In the 22nd minute, Phanthamit Praphanth broke the Vietnam U19 offside trap to catch a pass from his teammates. In this situation, Van Son – the central defender who replaced Hoang Canh indirectly created opportunities for the opponent when he missed the ball. Phanthamit faced goalkeeper Van Binh. He clicked the ball towards the far corner so that goalkeeper of U19 Vietnam could not turn his hand. Fortunately for Vietnam U19, the ball came to hit the vertical post.

After this situation, the defense of U19 Vietnam still played inconspicuously. Then in the 42nd minute, from a free kick that sent the ball into the penalty area, Theeekawin cleared Africa’s block, heading towards Phanthamit. This defender crossed the finish line in embarrassment from center-back Van Son and goalkeeper Van Binh. The ball then bounced in front of Sitha Boonhla right in front of the goal. He immediately took advantage of the opportunity to hit the empty goal, in the confusion of the defense of u19 Vietnam.

Meanwhile, U19 Vietnam’s offensive line did not create many pieces in front of Thailand’s U19 goal. The most significant situation came in the 41st minute, when Van Truong broke the U19 Thailand offside trap and then put the ball over the head of goalkeeper Chommaphat but failed.

After the first half was ineffective in both attack and defense, coach Dinh The Nam decided to put Quoc Viet and Dinh Bac on the field. Immediately, U19 Vietnam began to create bright situations. In the 53rd minute, Anh Tu eliminated Thailand’s left-back. He moved into the middle before launching a sudden long shot that made the U19 Thailand’s goalkeeper struggle to rescue. Exactly 1 minute later, U19 Vietnam had another chance. This time, Quoc Viet moved without the ball wisely to break the offside trap of the Thai U19 defense. He skillfully controlled the ball and then accelerated into the penalty area, before finishing to beat the opponent’s goalkeeper.

The period after that saw the struggle from both U19 Vietnam and U19 Thailand. The final draw was 1-1 after the official 90 minutes, the two teams entered the penalty shootout to determine the winner. While Dinh Bac, Van Tu, Van Truong, Van Khang and Nhat Minh all successfully performed the kicks for U19 Vietnam, on the side of Thailand U19, only Seksan Ratree and Kroekphon Arbram beat goalkeeper Van Binh. In the 3rd kick, the substitute Chanapach Buaphan was blocked by the U19 Vietnam goalkeeper from the bottom left corner of the goal.

Winning the final 5-3 after the penalty shootout, U19 Vietnam defeated U19 Thailand to win the bronze medal of the AFF U19 2022.

After the match, with the victory belonging to Vietnam U19, the VFF Standing Executive Committee praised the spirit of coach Dinh The Nam’s team and rewarded the whole team with 300 million VND. Previously, the Committee also awarded 500 million VND for the achievement of passing the group stage of U19 Vietnam.