2024 U-23 Asian Cup: Four ASEAN Teams Different Fate In The First Match

Vietnam U-23 again showed it as a strong team in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup (doc. AFC).

JAKARTA - The inaugural match of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup group has been completed on April 17, 2024. The four Southeast Asian teams (ASEAN) who appear have different fates.

Indonesia U-23 played in the opening match of the tournament against Qatar U-23 on April 15, 2024. The Group A Party ended controversially.

Referee Nasrullo Kabirov who led the match looked one-sided. He benefited the hosts thanks to a penalty and two red cards for Indonesia U-23 which attracted debate.

Then, different fates with another Southeast Asian team, Thailand U-23. The white elephant looked surprising by beating the strong team of Iraq U-23 with a score of 2-0 in Group C on April 16, 2024.

The victory was not only a matter of three points, but a historical record for Thailand U-23. They were finally able to beat Iraq U-23 for the first time in the last seven encounters.

In fact, Iraq U-23 became one of the strong candidates to win the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup because they had won in the first edition of 2013.

Thailand U-23's slick work was followed by Vietnam U-23 from Group D. They beat Kuwait U-23 with a convincing score of 3-1.

Vietnam U-23 does have experience in the U-23 Asian Cup. This year's edition is the fifth participation. They only missed the first edition of 2013 and have never been absent since debuting in the 2016 edition.

In fact, Vietnam U-23 has the best achievement, namely being runner-up in the third edition of 2018.

Vietnam U-23 again showed spurs that they were back on the title race list.

However, the victory over Kuwait U-23 did not make Vietnam U-23 coach, Hoang Anh Tuan, satisfied. You see, the match was tough which resulted in both teams playing 10 players in the first half.

"I'm not very satisfied with today's game. The first match was always difficult for both parties. I'm just happy with the results, but not with the performance, especially in the first half because of the red card (for Nguyen Ngoc Thang)." "The performance is not in accordance with our training session. The red card before halftime shows the loss of our mental discipline," said Hoang on the AFC official website.

Hoang further demanded that his troops perform better so that the title title title challenger deserves to be pinned to Vietnam U-23. "I told them that the opponent was not too strong and our performance was not good. We just need to perform like we did during training. In the second half, we played much better and scored more goals," said Hoang again.

Meanwhile, the last ASEAN team to appear in the inaugural match of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup group was Malaysia U-23. Young Tigers who are in the same group as Vietnam U-23 follow in the footsteps of Indonesia U-23 because they lost.

Malaysia U-23 lost in the first match of Group D against Uzbekistan with a score of 0-2.

In the next match, two teams from Southeast Asian, Malaysia U-23 vs Vietnam U-23, will meet in the second group of Group D on April 20, 2024.