Vietnam U17 Training Toward the 2026 World Cup: Reading Group G Through 29 Names

The training session at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre unfolded in an atmosphere the report described as relaxed. No shouting, no punishing laps. Just the ball, steady touches, and the coaching staff's voices rising in waves. But after more than thirty years holding a microphone and over forty years in the stands, I have learned one thing: the way a youth national team enters a preparation cycle for a major tournament rarely reveals itself in noisy sessions. It reveals itself in numbers. And the first number that caught my eye was 29. Twenty-nine names called up. A figure notably larger than the standard final-tournament squad, which usually ranges from 20 to 23 at youth level. For a U17 men's team heading toward a World Cup, that number tells me a story about screening, about internal competition, and about a preparation window longer than anyone might imagine. More than thirty years holding a microphone, I have learned this: sport is not only about scorelines. But scorelines, and the numbers behind them, shape expectations. For Vietnam's U17s, expectation is being built on a milestone already achieved, not on a match just finished. The context of this training camp is clear to those who follow the flow of Vietnamese youth football. Vietnam U17 has secured qualification for the 2026 FIFA U17 World Cup, an achievement few youth generations in Southeast Asia have reached in recent cycles. The foundation of that ticket lies in the journey at the AFC U17 Asian Cup held last May, where the team left enough of a mark to advance through qualifying. The team is now in a preparation phase, no longer a hurdle-clearing one. That changes the very nature of the work. It is no longer about handling the pressure of qualifying. Instead, it is the bigger question: once you are on the world stage, how do you prepare not just to appear, but to leave a trace? The training route the coaching staff has mapped out is decisive. The team maintains training at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Centre until October. Then comes a campaign that takes the squad to West Asia, before relocating to Qatar. Looking at that journey on a map, I see a logic that is far from random. Taking a seventeen-year-old age group to a Middle Eastern country and then moving them to Qatar is not merely about tactical work. It is about acclimatising to climate, to humidity, to time zones, to daily rhythm and to different pitch quality. For young athletes, physiological adaptation is sometimes no less important than knowing the playbook. When the old wave recedes, I step onto a new platform, and the voice is still my own. In this case, I look at the personnel structure of Vietnam U17 to guess what they are trying to protect. The most important personnel anchor is continuity. The coaching staff, led by Cristiano Roland, has been confirmed to continue. In youth football, stability in the head coach position is not a given. U17 cycles are short, and federations tend to change personnel when results disappoint. Keeping one coach across the preparation phase brings an advantage in selection and preserves continuity in philosophy. That is a positive signal not every youth team in the region enjoys. Second, the team retains the core from the AFC U17 Asian Cup. Names cited such as Van Duong, Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc, and the goalkeeper most likely to be chosen, Ly Xuan Hoa, form a spine with continental experience. In youth football, continental experience is more valuable than people think. A seventeen-year-old has only a few chances to play at international level. Taking them to a World Cup without seasoned anchors is a gamble. Retaining the core is a strategic decision oriented toward cohesion rather than full rebuild. On the men's football holiday, I quietly fold women's records into every bulletin. But this time, the story is about a collective built on a foundation of cohesion. For a team, personnel cohesion within a short cycle can create a small but decisive edge in tight matches. What is notable is that calling up 29 players signals positions in the starting eleven remain open. In the report itself, the phrase used is that players are working hard to score points with the coaching staff. That is the language of a trial, not of a settled squad. From a management perspective, this cuts two ways. On one hand, it creates healthy competition, maintains high training intensity, and gives the staff data to assess within a collective environment. On the other, for a seventeen-year-old, living in a state of not knowing whether you will be kept creates real psychological pressure. That is a silent variable no metric can capture. Now, let us talk about the group. Vietnam U17's Group G comprises Mali, Belgium and New Zealand. Reading each name, I understand why those doing technical work in Vietnam must be extremely careful in framing expectations. Belgium, at youth level, is one of the most methodical development systems in Europe. Belgian youth teams play structured football, emphasising positional control and tactical discipline. The academy foundation here produces players coached in tactical thinking from a very early age. For a Vietnam U17 side, facing such a system is a test of defensive organisation and the ability to hold the ball under pressure. Mali is one of Africa's great youth-development powers. It is a country that has repeatedly sent youth generations to finals and exports many talents to European academies. The strength of African youth teams, especially Mali, usually lies in superior physicality, speed in transition and ability to win duels. This is precisely where Vietnamese youth teams have historically been at a disadvantage against opponents from outside the continent. New Zealand is the opponent one can target for points. The Oceania representative typically has good physical build, plays directly and has a relatively clear system, but overall does not have as deep a pool of high-quality players as the leading football nations. In a harsh group, the match against New Zealand is one Vietnam U17 must optimise. More than thirty years holding a microphone, I have learned this: sport is not only about scorelines. With a group containing Belgium and Mali, the reasonable yardstick for Vietnam U17 is not whether they advance from the group, but whether the team can compete, whether it can hold its structure for ninety minutes against physically strong opponents, and whether it can produce at least one positive result against New Zealand. The pandemic fell silent, the dressing room spoke up – I am only the one holding the mic. In this case, I want to point the mic toward the question of the sustainability of a long preparation campaign with seventeen-year-old athletes. One issue the report does not address is load management for young players. The journey from Vietnam until October, then to West Asia, then to Qatar is an extended chain of travel and training. For adult players, this is already a challenge. For a developing musculoskeletal system, balancing professional training with physiological limits requires strict medical supervision. Without data on training volume, intensity, or recovery metrics, one cannot assess whether this route is being adjusted appropriately for the age group. Another point worth noting is the expectation equation. The World Cup ticket is a genuine achievement. But once the flag is planted, expectation tends to outrun actual capability. In youth football, where results depend heavily on whether seventeen-year-olds handle brief moments, the gap between expectation and reality can become a media trap. A team that plays well but exits in the group stage is not the same as a team that plays poorly. But in many places, the two get conflated if expectations are pushed too high before the tournament begins. Esports was born half a century after me, yet they taught me how to start over. Youth football taught me something else: a generation truly wins only when its players make it into first teams at club level. The U17 World Cup functions as a global shop window. For names like Van Duong, Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc or Ly Xuan Hoa, a strong showing on the world stage can draw attention from foreign academies. This is positive for each individual's market value. But it carries a dual implication. When young internationals attract foreign academies, they may leave early. This flow benefits the player, benefits the reputation of Vietnamese football, but can simultaneously hollow out the next cohort at U19, U23 and senior national-team levels over the coming years. I have seen this in many countries in the region: youth football surges, then talents are drawn away, and within a few years the national team must rebuild from scratch. In terms of resources, this is not a club-finance story. There are no transfer contracts, no wage structures at this level. But there is a clear indirect investment: the Vietnam Football Federation organises and funds the training chain from domestic grounds to West Asia and then Qatar. For Southeast Asia, a youth team being sent on a camp of this scale is an indicator of the priority given to this age group. Without detailed figures, budget sustainability cannot be assessed. But the existence of the plan shows a federation-level determination that, historically, not every youth cycle has enjoyed. There is an aspect that must be stated plainly. Vietnamese youth football has made significant progress as a regional force, and the World Cup ticket is evidence of that. But at global level, gaps in physicality, transition speed and squad depth persist. Against Mali and Belgium, this will show more clearly in duels and in the closing stages of matches. This is not something to hide. It is a fact to be looked at directly, so that tactical preparation reflects reality. In that context, a team's plan is usually built around two elements: defensive discipline and efficiency in set pieces. Against physical opponents, a youth team that wants to compete must hold the distances between its lines, avoid being stretched, and maximise dead-ball situations. These are things a long training campaign can absolutely produce, if carried out correctly. A voice from the dressing room. In youth teams, the dressing room is not only a place to talk tactics. It is where a group of seventeen-year-olds learns to trust each other, to carry each other through moments when they themselves are afraid. A coach who holds the team across a long cycle and gives them a clear spine is doing the right thing. But that spine is only worth something if the rest of the 29-name list adds depth to it. Transfer talk buzzes all season, but what lingers are the lives after the contract. For Vietnam U17, what lingers may not be a ticket to the knockout round, but the story of Van Duong, Ngoc Nguyen Luc or Xuan Hoa after the tournament. If they advance, it is the success of an entire process. If they come home early but leave the image of a collective playing to its own standards, that too is no small value in youth football development. At 56, I still ask one question: where are women scoring in this game? That question applies to youth men's football too. Because a campaign like Vietnam U17's training camp can open opportunities not only for players, but also for analysts, young coaches and PE teachers across the country. Youth football is not only about eleven people on the pitch. There is one thing I always say in school talks: a successful youth team creates a template. For Vietnam U17, the template being built is a team that prepares seriously, retains its core, travels far to acclimatise to harsh conditions, and enters a very difficult group with the humility of a challenger. That is not a template promising results, but it is a template worth believing in. What I observe in successful youth football nations is something seemingly simple. They do not try to create giant leaps in a single cycle. They accumulate patiently across many cycles, knowing that the leap only comes when infrastructure, personnel and thinking ripen together. The U17 World Cup is not the final destination. It is one of the measurement points. For Vietnam U17, the most important measurement may well be: after the tournament, how many of those 29 players will be in first teams in the V.League, and how many will be put on the pathway to U19 and U23 levels over the next two years? That is why I look at this training camp with calm rather than excitement. The biggest stage that the Van Duong, Ngoc Nguyen Luc or Xuan Hoa generation is heading toward is not a match in Qatar. That stage is the longer period afterward, when they must prove that the World Cup ticket is not the end of a journey, but the start of a harder new one. And this football nation, if it truly wants to step up a level, will have to learn to measure success by the number of grown players emerging from training camps like this, not only by a result on the pitch.