The Vietnamese Olympic, or under-23 (U23), football team’s head coach Toshiya Miura set his sights on securing a seat in the finals of the second Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s U23 Football Championship 2015.

The U23 squad.

Every player will have to play to the best of their ability to achieve that goal, Miura told reporters during the team’s first day of training in preparation for the qualifying round of the AFC U23 Championship on February 25 in Hanoi.

The 30-player squad is undergoing a training regime of two sessions a day before the shortlist of 23 players for the final squad is announced in three weeks.

Vietnam is now ranked in the top 20 football teams in Asia and has a reasonable chance to compete for a place in the finals in Qatar early next year, Miura said, adding that all players will have to compete for positions in the squad.

Miura kept quiet about what playing style the team will use, saying that he is still searching for the best players.

During the month-long training, the team will have three international friendly matches as well as two matches with the two-time V-League champions Hanoi T&T and V-League 2015’s in-form Quang Ninh Coal.

After the matches, the final team will fly to Malaysia to begin the qualifiers where they are to face Japan, Malaysia and Macau in group I.

A total of 43 teams will be competing for 15 slots alongside the host nation. The teams are divided into ten groups, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament.

VNA