Vietnam U22 team to play international tournament in France

By Hoang Nguyen July 4, 2020 | 08:00 pm PT

Members of the U22 team that won SEA Games 30 gold medal for Vietnam in December 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Lam Thoa.

Vietnam will be represented by its U22 team as it makes its debut at the Toulon Tournament in France this December.

Tran Quoc Tuan, vice president of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), confirmed the participation while informing the press of plans for the national teams in the second half of 2020.

"The U22 team had the first training this year to help coach Park Hang-seo evaluate the players. More short trainings like this will come soon. In December, the U22 team will go to France to train and compete in the Toulon Tournament. This is a very valuable chance for the team as they will get to play against European and the American teams, and will be great preparation for the 2022 AFC U23 qualifiers and SEA Games 31 in 2021," Tuan said.

The Toulon Tournament (full name Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is an international football tournament featuring U17 to U23 teams. It is named after the late Maurice Revello, who started the event in 1967. It was originally scheduled to be played from June 1-14, but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tournament has host France and 11 other teams from different continents. This will be Vietnam’s first appearance in the event. Brazil are the defending champions.

Twelve teams will be drawn into three groups of four, with group stage matches played on a round-robin basis. The teams will be ranked according to points. The group leaders and the best runners-up will qualify for the semi-finals.

In the knockout stage, if a game is tied at the end of regulation time, there will be no extra time and the winner will be determined in a penalty shootout.