Hosts Vietnam and Japan have booked two places in the semifinals of the AFF Nutifood U-19 Cup 2014 taking place in Hanoi after Australia lost their second group stage game to the Japanese on Sunday.
On Friday, Vietnam edged past Australia 1-0 and yesterday Japan beat the Young Socceroos 4-3.
So Vietnam and Japan will compete for the top spot in Group B tomorrow during their clash at My Dinh Stadium. The losers will rank second in the group and still play in the semis.
In the event that they draw, goal differences will have the final say on their positions.
The tournament, which is the Southeast Asian championship, is organized to create a chance for participating teams to train and prepare for the Asian U-19 Football Championship to be hosted by Myanmar from October 9 to 23.
Coach Suzuki Masakazu of Japan said, “My team will play with our 100 percent strength in the encounter with Vietnam. We consider all games at this tourney chances for training ourselves.”
“The Vietnamese have made much progress recently with fast and dangerous attacks,” the Japanese coach added. “But we will block the assault by any Vietnamese players during our match.”
Vietnam are more dangerous than Australia despite differences in their style of play, Masakazu said.
The Nutifood Cup is slated to take place from September 5 to 13 with the participation of six teams who have won tickets to the final round of the 2014 Asian U-19 competition.
In Hanoi, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar are in Group A, while Japan, Australia, and Vietnam are placed in Group B.
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