A difficult match awaits the Vietnamese futsal team (left) in achieving their goal of participating in the World Cup for the third time – Photo: AFC
Tonight (April 24), the Vietnamese futsal team will face Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Asian Futsal Championship (9 p.m., FPT Play THTT) taking place at the Bangkok Arena in Thailand. Uzbekistan is the team ranked 25th on the global futsal rankings.
Third chance to attend the World Cup
After winning second place in Group A, the Vietnamese futsal team still has many problems to overcome. The first is that they only scored 3 goals after 3 matches.
This data makes the coaching staff unhappy. The ability of the Vietnamese futsal team to convert opportunities into goals in this tournament is not as expected because the two leading players, Minh Tri and Cong Vien, are both absent.
However, after the players’ commendable efforts, coach Diego Giustozzi gave the entire team a full day of rest. Accordingly, Vietnamese futsal players can go to shopping centers in Bangkok to buy gifts for relatives. For some members, this is their first time attending the Asian tournament. So this will probably bring back good memories for the family.
With the advantage of resting one day more than their opponents, the Vietnamese futsal team almost took all the pressure off into the hotel swimming pool. Goalkeeper Ho Van Y and his teammates temporarily forgot about their opponents and the pressure they had experienced over the past week, such as only surpassing Myanmar due to a slight difference in goal difference (0 vs -3).
Psychology is also an issue mentioned by coach Diego Giustozzi in the pre-match press conference. He said: “Before the knockout match, there is always fear and caution. Against a team that competes fairly and openly, we have confidence that the whole team will play well against the Uzbekistan futsal team.” .
Challenge from the World Cup host
The last time the two teams met, the Vietnamese futsal team lost 1-3 to Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals of the Asian Championship in February 2018.
Furthermore, the performance of the Vietnamese and Uzbekistan futsal teams is also opposite. Specifically, the Vietnamese futsal team only won 1 of the last 5 matches. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan futsal has won all 5 recent matches.
However, head coach Jose Venancio López of the Uzbekistan futsal team was quite cautious when speaking at the press conference: “Winning tickets to the futsal World Cup is increasingly difficult because the level of teams in Asia is gradually shrinking. Futsal team Vietnam is improving and anything can happen in the quarterfinals. Vietnamese players are agile, good at adapting and changing tactics very quickly.”
As the host country of the 2024 Futsal World Cup, Uzbekistan has invested a lot in this event. The name of coach Jose Venancio López is also the first guarantee for this campaign. Specifically, this former Spanish futsal coach was appointed in September 2023 and has spent 7 months building a futsal empire in Uzbekistan.
Coach Jose Venancio López’s track record is very impressive with Spain winning the championship four times and winning the World Cup futsal runner-up twice. Although the Uzbekistan futsal team will certainly participate in the 2024 Futsal World Cup as the host, Mr. Lopez’s main goal in this tournament is the first title in the Asian futsal arena.
Facing a strong opponent like Uzbekistan, the Vietnamese futsal team really faces a big challenge to participate in the futsal World Cup for the third time in a row.
