Thailand U23 men's football team for the Asian Games departed for Hangzhou, China, early Saturday morning with coach Issara Sritaro targeting a place in the second round.
A total of 16 players took the flight with the remaining seven scheduled to join the squad in Hangzhou on Sunday.
Issara admitted that his men were placed in a tough group comprising Bahrain, Kuwait and South Korea for the first round action.
"Our target is to qualify for the second round of the tournament, but we will be taking things on a match-by-match basis," said the Thai coach.
"I believe that we have the players who can get us past the first round.
"We have gained a lot of confidence from our performances in the Asian U23 Championship qualifiers in which we just finished on the top of our group.
"Some of the team members are not part of their club's main squad so they have been with us for some time which I think is a good thing.
"The players are eager to face South Korea as they want to gauge the level of their game against a top team."
Thailand will play their first game against Bahrain on Tuesday, before taking on South Korea on Thursday. Their last group game will be against Kuwait on next Sunday.
Thailand U23 team midfielder Purachet Thodsanit said he was keen to put on an impressive show in the Games.
"I want to produce a good performance in every match and take the team as far in the tournament as possible," said Purachet. "This is my first Asian Games but I know many people have high expectations.
"We will try to prepare ourselves well. Hopefully we will do well in this event because it is sort of a continuation of the Asian Championship qualifiers."
Victories for Buriram, Angels
Thai league 1 defending champions Buriram United picked up three points from their home game as they routed 10-man Trat 4-0 on Friday night.
In another game, Bangkok United showed class as the Angels hammered Sukhothai 3-0.