Around 25,000 fans holding national flags and wearing red colour T-shirts with yellow star flocked to Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City’s district 10 to join an exchange with Vietnam’s U23 team on February 4.

Vietnam’s U23 team laid a floral wreath at the statue of late President Ho Chi Minh in HCM City 

They welcomed head coach Park Hang-seo and his players with excitement, cheers, hand claps when they went around the stadium to express their gratitude to the fans for endless love and support for the team during the three-week AFC U-23 Championship.

Park expressed his surprise at the warmest welcome and love that Vietnamese supporters have reserved for him, other coaches and the U23 football team, promising that he will double his efforts to better train the team.

Amid non-stop cheers, captain Luong Xuan Truong also extended his thanks to Vietnamese fans for their love, saying that “as the team captain, I always try my best to connect all players in the team. Ahead each match in the AFC U-23 Championship, I united the team to ensure our winning determination for the national pride and trust of Vietnamese fans.”

During the exchange programme, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong presented two billion VND (88,000 USD) to the U23 team, 100 million VND (4,400 USD) to assistant coach Lu Dinh Tuan and midfielder Tran Dinh Trong each, and 50 million VND (2,200 USD) to goalkeeper Nguyen Van Hoang.

Le Cong Vinh, acting President of the Ho Chi Minh City Football Club, presented 500 million VND (22,000 USD) to the team.

Vietnam’s U23 team also received 6.8 billion VND (300,000 USD) from businesses at the event.

Vietnam came second at the AFC U23 Championship after losing 1-2 to Uzbekistan in the final in Changzhou, China, on January 27.

Earlier, the team defeated Australia 1-0 in the group stage. They won over Iraq in the quarterfinals and Qatar in the semifinals with penalty shootouts.

With these achievements, Vietnam became the first Southeast Asian squad to compete in the AFC U23 final.-VNA