After failing to communicate with Vietnam for three days, Iran’s U21 football squad has been withdrawn from the International U21 Football Tournament set to kick off in the south next week.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) on Tuesday decided to replace Iran with its own national U19 team.

Vietnam will now field two teams – the U21s and U19s – against visitors from China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

The four visitors all confirmed on Monday that their teams would be competing in the event, which will run October 9-18.

The squads from Singapore, Malaysia and China will arrive Wednesday while Thailand lands in Vietnam the next day before the competition kicks off Friday.

High spirits

The Vietnamese U21 squad was selected from the most outstanding players at the 13th National U21 Football Tournament, which ended Sunday, and are now training.

Vietnam finished third after victors Iran and second-placed Thailand at the international event last year.

Tran Tan Thong, Vietnam’s U21 squad coach said that though his players had been picked from several teams, they were getting along very well.

“They have been training very hard. In such high spirits, I believe our U21s will be a pleasure to watch.”

But they’ll have some tough competition.

Ong Kim Swee, coach of Vietnam’s Group B rivals Malaysia, said last month that his players were ready to redeem themselves at the upcoming event after a humiliating performance in Hue city last year when they bowed out of the tournament after a 2-4 loss to Vietnam and a 0-2 shutout by Thailand.

Set to impress

Singapore’s U21s coach Salim Moin said that Singapore would impress everyone at the tournament in Binh Duong.

Singapore’s U19 team lost 0-1 to Thailand in the final group stage of the U19 event, ending in Group A third place behind Thailand and Australia, who went on to become the champions and runners-up, respectively, of the contest.

Despite the defeat, both Moin and Singapore’s U19 team manager Jita Singh were not disappointed. In fact, they said they were pleased with the young players. ‘Powerhouse’

Representatives from the Fedération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) have called Chinese youth football an Asian “powerhouse.”

China’s U20s won the U20 Asian championship in 1985 and were runners-up three times, in 1982, 1996 and 2004.

The Chinese U17s won the U17 Asian championship twice, in 1992 and 2004, and advanced to the FIFA U17 championship in 2005.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien