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After 20 days of training in Ho Chi Minh City, the team travelled to Hanoi on August 12, entering a sprint to prepare for the world’s largest futsal event.
Touching upon the recent training period in HCM City, Giang said: “We practised attacking and defensive tactics, as well as set-piece combinations. I am satisfied with the results of the camp as the players completed all the training exercises in an effective fashion.”
The draw for the 2021 Futsal World Cup was held in June, seeing Vietnam join five-time champions Brazil along with Panama and the Czech Republic in Group D. As scheduled, Giang’s troops will play their opening match against Brazil on September 13 before taking on Panama and the Czech Republic on September 16 and 19, respectively.
“As soon as the draw results were unveiled, we immediately began collecting data about our three opponents. With Brazil almost guaranteed a ticket to advance, we are determined to battle it out with Panama for the remaining slot in the round of 16. Panama has recently had friendly matches and organised regional tournaments. The coaching staff will draw experience and design appropriate tactics to achieve good results,” the head coach said.
The Vietnamese players are training hard to enter the 2021 Futsal World Cup with their top form. (Photo: VFF)
For his part, Tran Van Vu, a member of the national futsal team, said: “During the recent training camp in HCM City, I achieved 70-80% of my personal fitness target. My teammates and I are in good form and highly determined for the upcoming World Cup campaign.”
“With the aim of advancing to the knockout round as what we did in 2016, the whole team always try out best in every training session. I think that if we can maintain our current form, a knockout berth is quite within our reach,” he added.
According to head coach Pham Minh Giang, the Vietnamese squad will be reduced to 17 players (including three goalkeepers) from the current 22 before leaving for Spain on August 25 for overseas training until September 3. After that, they will fly to Lithuania for the last phase of preparations for the 2021 Futsal World Cup. If everything goes to plan, Giang’s troops will have a last-minute friendly against Morocco, scheduled for September 6.
This is the second consecutive time Vietnam have qualified for the Futsal World Cup. In their debut at the 2016 World Cup in Colombia, the Southeast Asian side made it through to the knockout stage as one of the four best third-placed teams.
The 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup will be hosted by Lithuania from September 12 to October 3, with a total of 24 teams drawn in six groups of four. The group stage will be played in a round robin format to determine the top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams to progress to the round of 16.
