Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The matches against Australia and hostsMongolia in the group stage of the Asian Football Confederation U16Championship qualification are important for Vietnam, CoachVu Hong Viet said.

However, histeam must beat Cambodia with high score in their Group I opener today.

TheVietnamese players come to the Asian qualifier after triumphing in theSoutheast Asian championship in Thailand in July.

Accordingto the coaching board, it would be a strong drive for the youngfootballers at the higher-level tournament.

However, Vietsaid, “I told them to leave the trophy behind. Our key task now is a slotin the U16 finals. They have been asked to focus 100 percent on thisevent.”

Viet said that thehectic competition schedule would be difficult for his team.

Vietnam, forwhom fitness was never an advantage, will have toplay a match every two days. It will stronglyaffect the players’ physique, the coach added.

Thecold weather in Mongolia will be another challenge, he said.

Whileit is hot and rainy in Vietnam, it is about10 degrees Celsius in Ulaanbaatar. However, the teamhad just two days of practiceto make themselves familiar with the conditions and thestadium, after training hard for a month in Hanoi.

Viet is pleasedwith his players’ preparations, saying that he believed the squadcould win a berth in the finals.

Speakingwith the media on September 19, the head of Vietnamdelegation, Nguyen Lan Trung, confirmed thatall the members were in good physical condition and readyfor their first game.

“Theyare really confident after winning the regional title.

However, they have all been remindednot to be subjective and underestimate their rival. The team mustplay with their best efforts,” said Trung.

CaptainVu Tien Long also concurred with Trung.

“Thecoaching board and we are in high spirits, ahead of the openingmatch. We believe we will have a good result (againstCambodia). We hope that the supporters athome will strongly encourage us tomorrow and in the wholetournament,” Long said.

Onthe other side, coach Lee Tae-hoon of Cambodia was notoptimistic about the match.

TheKorean trainer said he did not have a playmaker, who couldchange the situation of the game. He noted that theplayers made available to him were also not good enough to play Vietnam, whowas a strong team and top candidate to be the group leader.

However, Leepromised to do as well as they could to have the best result.

Ina later match of Group I, Australia will play Mongolia at the MFF FootballCentre.

Inthe early fixture of the tournament, Indonesia won two matches, while Thailandand East Timor took one win each in Group G. Brunei, Hong Kong, the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea and Chinese Taipei secured one game each in Group F.

Jordan ledGroup A after two victories, while Uzbekistan and Bahrain followed withone.

Afghanistan topped GroupC with six points. Iran and Lebanon are second and third with three points.

Forty-fourteams will bid for 15 spots - 10 group winners and five bestsecond-placed teams - in the championship’s finals, alongwith hosts Malaysia at the event, which is set to take placefrom September 20 to October 7 next year.-VNA