Despite home field advantage, the Vietnamese national team suffered a harrowing 0-1 defeat at the hands of their tenacious Japanese opponents at National My Dinh Stadium on September 13.
Vietnam played aggressively throughout both halves of the game but had few openings to score against the tough defence of Japan, coming up short in their latest bid for the ASEAN Football Federation's Nuti-Food U-19 Cup .
This is the third consecutive loss by U19 Vietnam against their formidable Japanese rival.
Due to injuries during the semi-finals, Vietnamese striker Cong Phuong was not able to play, which was a severe blow to the Vietnamese team’s offensive strategy and morale.
