Nagoya, 17:30 on September 25: Vietnam U23 Stands Before the Steel Wall of Korea

Late afternoon in September in Nagoya, I stayed behind in the press area of Paloma Mizuho Stadium after a young team's training session on the pitch. A goalkeeper nearly a metre ninety tall spread his arms and caught every ball the assistant fired at him as if offering them to an altar. I counted twenty catches without the ball once slipping from his gloves. The smell of freshly cut grass mixed with the cool of early autumn, and on the other side of the touchline a centre-back 1m92 tall warmed up, each of his steps seeming to press a hard mark into the turf. Standing a few metres away, I suddenly remembered the night at Kashima in 2026, when I first screamed until my voice cracked over a goal and forgot every number on the scoreboard. That night I learned that football is not written in box scores. This afternoon, watching the way those white shirts from Korea move across the pitch in Nagoya, I heard the same thing again: a match is about to begin, and it will be decided by the roughest things — height, speed, and a hunger that is real. The quarter-final of the men's football at Asiad 20 between Vietnam U23 and Korea U23 takes place at 17:30 on September 25 Vietnam time, at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, Japan. For me this is not just a match. I have lived in Nagoya for years, walked the road to this stadium every morning, and now, at the place I call home, my homeland's team will meet the strongest opponent in Asian youth football. Earlier this year, Vietnam U23 beat Korea U23 on penalties after a 2-2 draw over 120 minutes of two regular halves and two extra periods. That was the third-place match of the 2026 U23 Asian Cup. That memory is still warm, and it is why this meeting in Nagoya carries a different weight: Korea came here to collect a debt, and Vietnam came to prove that the victory in January was not an accident. At Asiad 20, Korea U23's squad has changed enormously compared with their own side at the U23 Asian Cup in January. They called up nine players based in Europe to come home for the Asian Games. These players mostly play for clubs in the United Kingdom — England, Scotland and Wales — so speed and a physical, strength-based approach are likely to be the style they adopt against Vietnam U23. There is a detail few notice: gathering troops from the land of mist is no coincidence. English football, especially lower-division football and the Scottish and Welsh leagues, is where young Korean players are forged according to a very specific formula — endurance, fierce duels, and the ability to run off the ball at high intensity for a full 90 minutes. That is football of collisions, of aerial balls performed like a ritual. Korea U23 have three overage players. They are midfielder Lee Gi Hyuk, 26, of Gangwon FC in Korea; Yang Hyun Jun, 24, of Celtic in Scotland; and Eom Ji Sung, 24, of Swansea City in England. These are not names included to fill a quota. They are included to shape the spine of the team. I spent many evenings rewatching Celtic matches to understand Yang Hyun Jun. He is not the type to dribble past three men. He runs into space before the defender realises, and when the ball arrives, his strike is short, clean, unadorned. At Swansea, Eom Ji Sung carries a different style — controlling tempo, distributing, and especially playing long cross-field passes with suspicious accuracy. Lee Gi Hyuk at Gangwon is the kind of central midfielder who reads the game, standing between two lines like a watchtower. In terms of physique, Korea U23 are very tall. They have goalkeeper Kim Joon Hong at 1m90, centre-backs Park Seong Hoon at 1m83, Kim Jo Soo at 1m92, Shin Min Ha at 1m86, central midfielder Lee Gi Hyuk at 1m84, winger Park Seung Soo at 1m84, strikers Lee Young Jun at 1m93 and Kim Myung Jun at 1m82. Set beside our squad, the gap becomes clear. Vietnam U23's starting eleven so far has usually had only two players over 1m80 — goalkeeper Cao Van Binh at 1m84 and centre-back Pham Ly Duc at 1m82. The rest are fairly short and could face major disadvantage against Korea's tall players in aerial balls and duels. I do not say this to spread fear. I say it because I have witnessed matches where height became destiny. I have learned how to write about defeat with reverence. But sometimes I forget that hunger also has painful faces. Looking at history, Korea U23 are the most desperate to win the men's football gold at the Asian Games across eras. They won the last three Asiad titles, in 2026, 2026 and 2026. Yet the objectives of Vietnam U23 and Korea U23 at Asiad 20 are very different. Vietnam U23, like Japan U23 and Uzbekistan U23, use many young players of the under-21 generation, aiming at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. Korea U23 aim for gold this year. Ahead of the match, Korean media have been cautious about Vietnam U23. Daum commented that although coach Kim Sang Sik, who knows Korean football well, does not lead Vietnam U23, Korea U23 cannot be complacent. Daum added that Vietnam U23 have emerged as a formidable dark horse of Asian football, relying on solid defending and their characteristic strong team spirit. Now I want to raise something counter-intuitive. People often look at a squad with nine European players and three overage stars and conclude that Korea U23 are comprehensively superior. That is true on paper. But football is not played on paper. There is a paradox in gathering players from far away: a team of individuals accustomed to different systems must bond within days. When the referee blows the whistle, value disappears. All that remains is how a person faces pressure. The match only ends when people stop remembering it. Football never asks who is taller. It only asks who dares to stand firm longer.