Vietnam U23 Land in Nagoya: The First Beat of Asiad 2026 and the Gaps Still Open

On the second-floor corridor of Chubu Airport in Nagoya, there is a detail the television cameras never point at: the equipment cart pushed by the logistics staff of Vietnam U23, carrying ten training balls and a box of strapping tape. No stand applauds that cart. Yet it is the first sign that the team has genuinely set off, rather than simply existing on a squad list.

At 00:15 on September 13, coach Dinh Hong Vinh and his players left Vietnam. Some five hours later, the squad touched down in Nagoya, ready for the Asiad 2026 campaign. I stood about twenty metres away, behind the arrivals barrier. No banners, no Vietnamese fans. Only a few organising committee staff holding name boards and a Japanese photographer wiping down his lens.

This is the third time I have stood in a Japanese airport waiting for a Vietnamese sports delegation. The previous two were friendlies. This one is a major Games. The difference is not in the amount of luggage, but in the rhythm of the walk. Players heading to a friendly move slowly and laugh often. Players heading to a Games move fast and say little.

After completing procedures at Nagoya Airport, Thanh Nhan and his teammates travelled to the hotel arranged by the organisers. The team expects its first training session on the afternoon of September 13. The gap between landing and the first ball being kicked is only a few hours. That is why I always pay more attention to the ball cart than to the line of players walking through the gate.

At Asiad 2026, Dinh Hong Vinh's squad is in Group C with Uzbekistan, the Philippines and Kuwait. The schedule is set: Kuwait on September 15, the Philippines on September 18 and Uzbekistan on September 22. Three matches in eight days — a workload that anyone who has monitored physical conditioning knows leaves no margin for error in recovery.

The opening match against Kuwait carries a different meaning from the other two. It is the first match after a long flight, after the squad was assembled, and after a period in which the squad was never complete. The result rarely decides qualification, but it decides how the team enters the next two games. An opening match out of rhythm drags a series of changes in how the personnel is arranged.

The match against the Philippines on September 18 falls exactly when the body begins to accumulate fatigue. This is the window in which young teams often drop points through complacency. The Philippines is a familiar regional opponent, and the gap in quality between the two sides makes it easy to overlook preparation details.

The match against Uzbekistan on September 22 is the real test. This is the strongest opponent in the group, and usually the side that poses the hardest tactical questions to Southeast Asian teams. How Vietnam U23 handles this match will say far more about the team's true limits than the previous two.

Regionally, Kuwait and the Philippines are two opponents Vietnamese youth teams have met at various levels. Kuwait has a stable technical and physical foundation and typically causes trouble with quick transitions down the flanks. The Philippines plays with high energy, prioritising duels and long balls. Uzbekistan operates at a different level, with a tight structure and the ability to control the tempo of a match. Three different opponent profiles within eight days means the coaching staff must prepare three different scenarios, not one.

As of now, Vietnam U23 still does not have a full squad. Two players, Nguyen Quoc Toan (Quy Nhon) and Dang Tuan Phong (Hai Phong), only arrive in Nagoya right before the team's opening match at the Asiad. Their late arrival is no small matter. A player who arrives late must readjust to the time zone, the pitch and the movement patterns of his teammates, while the coaching staff no longer has time to experiment.

Earlier, after helping their club beat Hanoi FC 4-1 in round two of the LPBank V-League 2026/27, six SLNA players joined up in time to fly to Japan with the whole squad. This is the group that arrives in genuine match condition, not training condition. The difference between those two states is often underrated, when in reality it determines whether a player can step onto the pitch and play at the right rhythm immediately.

Besides Cao Van Binh showing good form in goal, Quang Vinh made his mark with a brace within just a few minutes. That win gave the young SLNA players more confidence as they enter the Asiad 2026 journey. But confidence from a club win does not automatically translate into confidence at a major Games.

What stands out is that Quang Vinh and his teammates arrived at Nagoya Airport with match rhythm still in their legs. That is an asset no training session can create in three days.

Cao Van Binh is the name I noted separately. A goalkeeper in good form at club level entering a short tournament is a double advantage: he preserves stability and is sharp enough to command the defence against unfamiliar opponents. With a hastily assembled squad, the goalkeeper is often the one who keeps everything from falling apart. Stability never dazzles, but it keeps everything from breaking.

Thanh Nhan is the first name mentioned in the dispatches. He belongs to the group travelling to the hotel with the whole squad, without club commitments. Such players have more time to get used to the training pitch early, but they lack match feeling. This is the balancing problem the coaching staff must solve within a few days.

Looking at the list, Vietnam U23 has two groups in two different physical states: those who have just finished the domestic league and those who have only been in long-term camp. In a tournament of three matches in eight days, allocating these two groups is a more important tactical variable than any formation on paper.

I do not stand up to defend anyone, I only stand up so that the numbers speak for themselves. Three matches in eight days, plus a five-hour flight, plus two late arrivals, plus six players who have just played round two of the V-League. Those are four measurable facts. Every number is a whisper; you only need enough patience to hear it.

The most easily misunderstood part here is how to read the phrase "not yet a full squad". From the outside it is often translated as weakness. Inside the team, it usually means only a matter of assembly timing. Two late arrivals do not make the team weaker, but they reduce the number of options the coaching staff can test before facing Kuwait. An option that is not tested barely exists once the match begins.

There is another, more counter-intuitive reading. A late-arriving squad sometimes creates an unexpected advantage, when the team is forced to settle on a starting framework early and keep it, rather than rotating too much during the pre-tournament phase. Teams that win short tournaments are usually the ones that find their framework earliest, not the ones with the most choices.

That places responsibility on the coaching staff during the September 13 session and the ones that follow. Every training session in Nagoya is now a decision point, no longer an experiment. When the ball stops rolling, I start watching more closely. And at this stage, what is worth observing is not who starts, but who is paired with whom in the small-sided drills.

Another rarely mentioned detail: the six SLNA players joining up after the 4-1 win may carry something Vietnamese youth teams rarely have in full at a major Games — a winning state. That state does not guarantee results, but it reduces tension in the opening minutes of the first match, when every error is magnified.

More broadly, the way Vietnam U23 prepares for Asiad 2026 reflects a long-term issue in youth football. Teams often have to assemble their squads in a short time because the domestic calendar does not make room for the Games calendar. The coaching staff has few options beyond accepting it and optimising within a few days. This repeats across generations, and it explains why Vietnamese youth teams often improve match by match rather than exploding from the first game.

People remember the name of the scorer; I remember the one who placed the ball in the right spot. In a hastily assembled squad, the ones who place the ball in the right spot are usually the central midfielders and the full-backs — the positions rarely mentioned in airport dispatches. If the team plays well in Nagoya, the greatest credit may belong to names that never appear in a headline.

The hotel arranged by the organisers sits in an area convenient for travel to the training ground. It is a small detail, but with a dense schedule, the distance between hotel and training ground is part of recovery work. An empty stadium does not mean no one is keeping the pulse going. In Nagoya, the people keeping the pulse going are the logistics staff, the doctors and the ones preparing balls for this afternoon's session.

Back to the bigger story. Asiad 2026 is a chance for a generation of young Vietnamese players to prove they can play three big matches in eight days without losing structure. Group C with Uzbekistan, the Philippines and Kuwait is not an easy group, but it is not an impossible one either. The outcome will depend on how the team handles three different time windows.

The first window is the Kuwait match on September 15, when the team still has full energy but lacks cohesion. The second window is the Philippines match on September 18, when the team has cohesion but is beginning to tire. The third window is the Uzbekistan match on September 22, when both energy and cohesion are tested. Each window demands a different approach, and a young team can only learn that by living through them.

From the perspective of someone watching training sessions, I believe the most worth watching in the coming days is how the coaching staff divides training loads between the group that has just played the V-League and the group that has been in long-term camp. If the SLNA group is given a lighter load in the first session, that is a sign they will play an important role against Kuwait. If not, they may well be used as back-up in the two later matches.

A young national team at a major Games is always a story about time. Time to recover, time to understand each other, time to lock in a plan. In Nagoya, Vietnam U23 has less time than it would like. But in football, that is not unusual. What is unusual is a team that knows how to use that limited time for the right things.

The first training session on the afternoon of September 13 will have no spectators, no scoreline, and will not be mentioned in any dispatch. But that is where the real pulse of Asiad 2026 begins, long before the whistle on September 15.