The winning goal
The 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals will be the beginning of a series of opportunities to participate in the U17 World Cup for 5 consecutive years. This is a golden period for developing teams like Vietnam to ambition to participate in the world youth tournament, at least once in the next half decade.
In theory, the format of the 2025 U17 Asian Cup is open to representatives of continents participating in the World Cup. Just win first or second place in the group (a total of 8 teams in the quarter-finals), U17 Vietnam or any team will immediately have a ticket to the world stage. However, it must be admitted that coach Cristiano Roland and his team are in a difficult group with the appearance of U17 Japan, U17 Australia and U17 UAE.
In the opening match, U17 Vietnam will face U17 Australia - a direct competitor for a ticket to the World Cup. 3 points is the goal that Mr. Roland's team is aiming for. That message was emphasized by captain Le Huy Viet Anh and midfielder Dau Hong Phong in the last 2 training sessions. The whole team will unite to aim for a victory against U17 Australia. We are always eager to win all 3 points in each match - midfielder Dau Hong Phong said.
Compared to U17 Australia, U17 Vietnam has a more modest average height of less than 1m75. In return, the "Golden Star Warriors" have prepared more carefully and meticulously than their opponents. In more than 1 and a half months of training, U17 Vietnam played a total of 7 friendly matches, including 5 domestic matches with the "blue teams" from the youth team to the Second Division. In addition, the team's spirit was also more confident when defeating U17 Oman with the same score of 1-0 after 2 general matches before the U17 Asian tournament.
The power of U17 Australia
Of course, U17 Australia is superior to U17 Vietnam in stature. Based on a list of 23 players registered by coach Brad Maloney, this team has an average height of 1m79. In terms of expertise, they also do not hide their intentions of playing with giant toys.
In the last two friendly matches with U17 Saudi Arabia and U17 Yemen, a series of border shots were used by Australian players, in order to create weapons of choice against Vietnam, the UAE or Japan.
More specifically, in the last 2 friendly matches, U17 Australia lost 2-4 to U17 Saudi Arabia but their playing style was not inferior, creating many opportunities from high balls in front of the opponent's goal. 2 days before, U17 Australia won a resounding 5-3 victory over U17 Yemen. Remember, it was Yemen that made Vietnam struggle to find a draw in the qualifying round. That shows the strength of U17 Australia is quite formidable.
Recently, U17 Australia also welcomed the last two faces to Saudi Arabia, Nicko Alfaro and Jay Maltz. Both are important pieces in coach Brad Maloney's strategy.
I feel happy that the whole team is in good shape in preparation for the tournament. I am really impressed with the players and cannot criticize them for anything. This is a very important step in the journey to conquer a ticket to the World Cup of Australia U17. We are focusing on completing the set goals" - Mr. Brad said.
Australia is really a strong opponent. And only high concentration and accurate calculations can help U17 Vietnam realize the goal of overcoming this opponent. According to the record, U17 Vietnam is fully focused, making different options for both attack and defense coordination situations.
U17 Vietnam will create a surprise against opponents who are rated higher and complete the set goals, coach Roland emphasized before the match with U17 Australia taking place at 22:00 on April 4.
