World cup

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) announced on Thursday the dates and venues of the games that the national men’s football team will play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the United Arab Emirates.

As per the Asian Football Confederation’s confirmation in March, the UAE have been selected as the host for Group G, which consists of Southeast Asian challengers Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand.

The VFF further informed the press of Vietnam team’s schedule in the qualifiers on Thursday.

Accordingly, Vietnam will compete against Indonesia at Al Maktoum Stadium on June 7, Malaysia at the same venue on June 11, and the UAE at Zabeel Stadium on June 15.

All of these three matches will take place at 11:45 pm (Vietnam time).

Next Media, a Vietnamese digital content provider, exclusively owns the broadcasting rights of the matches on all platforms.

The Asian qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar are in its second round, played by 40 teams drawn into eight groups of five to play home and away round-robin matches from September 5, 2019.

The remaining games in the qualifiers, which also serve as the road to the 2023 Asian Cup in China, have been pushed back twice due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, Vietnam are leading Group G with 11 points from five matches, followed by Malaysia with nine, Thailand with eight, the UAE — who are one game behind — with six points.

Indonesia are in the bottom of the group with zero points after five matches and stand no chance of advancing to the next qualifying round.

Vietnam aim to maintain the first place and reach the third qualifying round for the first time in the country’s football history.

In preparation for the upcoming three important games, the national team members will gather for a call-up on May 10.

From then to May 18, the squad will undergo training in Quy Nhon City, located in south-central Binh Dinh Province.

A friendly game with Topenland Binh Dinh FC on May 17 is also in the schedule for the team.

They will continue training in Hanoi from May 19 to 26 before leaving for the UAE on May 27.

The VFF is coordinating to set up a friendly match between Vietnam and an undecided team in West Asia before the Golden Dragons officially enter the qualifiers.

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In the first match on June 7, Vietnam will face Indonesia at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Later, on June 11, also at Al Maktoum, the Golden Dragons will take on Malaysia. Vietnam’s last game, with UAE, on June 15 will be hosted at Zabeel Stadium, Dubai.

All games will take place at 8:45 p.m. (local time), or 11:45 p.m. Hanoi time.

The organizer of the matches chose to host the games at night in order to avoid the scorching weather in UAE, which could hit 40 degrees Celsius during daytime.

The Vietnam national team will get a month to prepare for their World Cup qualifiers. They will train in south central Binh Dinh Province and Hanoi before flying to UAE on May 26. All members of the national team received their Covid-19 jab in April. However, they will still have to take Covid-19 tests 72 hours before flying to UAE.

On May 31, the team will play a friendly with Jordan in UAE to test the squad.

Vietnam are topping group G of the World Cup Asian qualifiers with 11 points after five games. The Golden Dragons will enter the final round of qualifiers for the first time in history if they score at least six points from three games.

The vaccination took place Wednesday at the 175 Military Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Vaccinated members of the national futsal team include players, coaches and staff.

The team will face Lebanon in the Futsal World Cup playoff, the first leg of which will kick off on May 20 and the second, five days later.

On Tuesday, 22 national futsal team players, including some impressive new faces, were called up by head coach Pham Minh Giang to train at Thai Son Nam Sports Center in HCMC.

The list will be shortened to 14 on May 14 before the team depart for UAE. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the national team can only play friendlies against domestic clubs Thai Son Nam and Sahako.

On April 21, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) handed direct slots to Iran, Japan and Uzbekistan, while Vietnam, Thailand, Iraq, and Lebanon will compete for the remaining two places.

Vietnam had hoped to finish in the top five at 2020 AFC Futsal Championship in Kuwait to qualify for World Cup, but the Covid-19 pandemic caused the tournament to be rescheduled three times before finally being canceled this year.

Therefore, AFC decided to pick the three direct slots and two others through playoffs by combining two sets of criteria. The first is from the top five teams of the most recent continental tournament, AFC Futsal Championship 2018, while the second calculates the top five teams from the overall ranking of the last three editions of AFC Futsal Championship (2014, 2016 and 2018).

The other playoff match is between Iraq and Thailand. Two winners of the playoff will qualify for Futsal World Cup 2021 in Lithuania, scheduled to take place from September 12 to October 3.