The Japanese national U-19 football team becomes the first visitor setting foot in Ho Chi Minh City to take part in the Nutifood Cup from January 6-10 at Thong Nhat Stadium. Tickets to watch the tournament have almost been sold out.

Japanese coach Suzuki Masakaru and his players arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport on late Friday amid a cheer of hundreds of fans waiting outside, and the friendly footballers responded with amicable smiles, waved to fans, and were willing to take photographs with fans at the airport before leaving for Rex Hotel at midnight.

“I can’t anticipate the real strength of the rival teams at the tournament and so, my players will try our best to show off the style of Japanese football,” said the coach.

“The host team U-19 Vietnam will be the most interesting opponent to face. I know that they made outstanding performances at recent tourneys. The team impressed U-19 Australia with a 5-1 win,” he added.

“This is the chance for both Japan and Vietnam to probe each other for the upcoming Asian U-19 Championship [in October in Myanmar].”

The other visitor Tottenham is scheduled to arrive at HCMC at 18:25pm today and AS Roma at 10:25am on Sunday.

Now, tickets to watch four matches on January 6 and 8 were sold out, while tickets for the last two matches on Jan.10 are on sale at Thong Nhat Stadium.

Fans can also watch the matches live on television channels of VTV2, VTV6, HTV, BTV, VTC, and Bóng đá (football) TV.