Goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung and right wing Nguyen Quang Hai of the U23 Viet Nam has been picked by sports reporter Scott McIntyre of Fox Sports Asia, as two of the best players after the 3-week Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship in China was over.

Goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung (Center) and right wing Nguyen Quang Hai (Left) (Photo: VNA)

The selected players include goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung, right-back Matthew Davies of Malaysia, centre-back Dostonbek Tursumov of Uzbekistan, centre-back Gao Zhunyi of China and left-back Seo Young-Jae of South Korea; right wing Nguyen Quang Hai, central midfields Odijion Xamrobekov of Uzbekistan and Akram Atif of Qatar and left wing Wei Shihao of China; and the two forwards – Zabikhillo Urinboev of Uzbekistan and Almoez Ali of Qatar.

Scott McIntyre praised goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung, saying that Dung was obviously outstanding in the back-to-back penalty shootout wins that saw Viet Nam in the final.

He also expressed his impression of right wing Nguyen Quang Hai and highlighted the sublime technical level of the player. 

“Hai showed outstanding mentality and belief to come up with some massive goals when games were really on the line and with Nguyen Cong Phuong largely isolated up front, almost all of the attacks ran through the brilliant right-sided Ha Noi FC man” he said.

Winning the runner-up title, Vietnamese football rose to the 77^th place from the 112^th in the FIFA rankings, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

What U23 Viet Nam did during the tournament won the hearts of football fans and earned praise from foreign media.

Fox Sports Asia described efforts of the Vietnamese team in the final as the victory of bravery.

The sports website together with many other international media gave positive comments that Vietnamese and ASEAN footballs are able to join bigger tournaments.

Impressed by U23 Viet Nam’s performance in the match with Uzbekistan, Fox Sport reporter John Duerden said that regardless of the outcome, the team were successful and 2018 will be a big year for ASEAN football.

On its homepage, the AFC highlighted that the Vietnamese footballers have lighted up the dream of tens of millions of Vietnamese fans and written a new page in the history of Vietnamese football.

(Source: VNA)