National squad arrive in UAE to kick start 2019 Asian Cup campaign

According to the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), after a long flight, coach Park Hang-seo and his players were present at Abu Dhabi airport yesterday morning in the warm welcome of representatives from the Vietnamese Embassy in the UAE, alongside a large number of overseas Vietnamese fans living in the West Asian country.

The team were well-facilitated with procedures to quickly move to the Crowne Plaza hotel, only about 20 minutes from the airport. This will be the place where coach Park's side will be stationed for their first two matches at the tournament.

Immediately after settling in and taking a rest to recover after the long flight, in the afternoon of the same day, the whole team began their first training session in the UAE to prepare for the Asian Cup 2019.

Park gave his players a light work-out on the field, mainly focusing on sports games with a lot of relaxation, but also requiring collective coordination and flexible movement. The most important thing for the Vietnamese team at this time is to stabilise their physical strength and restore their excitement.

In addition, the 60-year-old strategist also spent a third of the training session forging his players' coordination and tactical movement to ensure smoothness in the team's play.

In an interview after the training, captain Que Ngoc Hai said: "Today, we felt quite hard to wake up early to move to the UAE. However, after this afternoon's training session, the whole team felt greatly improved. We still have three more training sessions and we will try to ensure the best physical fitness so we can be ready for the opening game against Iraq."

This morning, the team will have a meeting with representative from the Asian Football Federation (AFC) on issues related to the tournament's rules, then they will continue to return to the training ground in the afternoon of the same day.

According to the schedule issued by AFC, Vietnam will play their first two matches of the group stage in Abu Dhabi against Iraq at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on January 8 and then Iran at Al Nahyan Stadium four days later.

The team then will move to Danat Al Ain resort in Al Ain city, about two hours from Abu Dhabi by bus, to play the last group match against Yemen at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium January 16.

(Source: NDO)