FIFA Rankings: Vietnam team defends position against Indonesia and Malaysia

The Vietnamese team still holds the 2nd position in Southeast Asia and 20th in Asia despite falling 2 places to 115th in the world in the September FIFA Days calendar, closely behind Indonesia and Malaysia.

Opportunity for Vietnam team to bounce back strongly

In the September FIFA Days schedule, the Vietnamese team did not play any international friendly matches. Coach Kim Sang-sik's players, led by assistant coach Dinh Hong Vinh, played two internal training matches, including a 0-4 loss to Nam Dinh Club with all foreign players on September 4. And a 4-3 win over CAHN Club on September 7.

The Vietnamese team will have a chance to bounce back strongly in the October schedule.

Photo: Ngoc Linh

The Vietnamese team will return in the FIFA Days calendar in October, playing official matches in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers against Nepal (home on October 9) and away on October 14. These are matches with high scores on the FIFA rankings, so coach Kim Sang-sik's team needs to aim for victories, rekindling hopes of competing for a ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup, as well as improving their position on the FIFA rankings.

In November, the Vietnamese team will also have a match against Laos in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, and a rematch with Malaysia at the end of March 2026 to decide the ticket to the 2027 Asian Cup finals.

The good news also came to coach Kim Sang-sik's team that in the September FIFA Days schedule, due to not competing, the Vietnam team still kept the same score of 1,169.92 points as in July. But it fell 2 places compared to the previous FIFA rankings, down to 115th in the world , after the Lebanese and Sudanese teams had a schedule and increased their points slightly to temporarily surpass and take positions 113 and 114 respectively.

Despite the drop in ranking, the Vietnamese team still maintains its position in the Southeast Asian region and continues to rank above the two rivals Indonesia and Malaysia, who both have two international friendlies in September against easy and selected opponents.

In particular, the Indonesian team won 6-0 against Taiwan and drew 0-0 with Lebanon. These results helped the team from the archipelago country gain only 3.43 points, moving up 1 place to 117th in the world.

This is a position that makes Indonesian fans disappointed, because they really hope that the home team will take advantage of all home field factors and the preparation process for the fourth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia to win against the Lebanese team, and will be the first time in many years to surpass the Vietnamese team. But this expectation once again had to be put on hold.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian team, thanks to their naturalized players, won against Palestine 1-0, making it a total of 2 wins on this occasion (before that, they won Singapore 2-1). Despite being boycotted by home fans because of the issue of naturalized players, the Malaysian team, thanks to these results, has risen strongly in the FIFA rankings.

Harimau Malaya will rise another 5 places, just like in July they rose 6 places, making a huge leap to 120th place in the world, only 5 places behind Vietnam and not far from Indonesia, as well as Thailand ranked 102nd in the world.

Just playing a friendly match, Indonesian and Lebanese players still got into a fight

The Thai team lost the King's Cup championship after losing 0-1 to Iraq, but thanks to the previous 3-0 win over Fiji, they were awarded only an insignificant 0.13 points. However, they still maintained their 102nd place in the world, number 1 in Southeast Asia and 16th in Asia.

With the position on the FIFA rankings for September (to be announced on September 18), the Southeast Asian teams still hold their positions, but the gap has narrowed. Thereby, creating fierce competition in October, when the teams of Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia return to compete in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, while the team of Indonesia will enter 2 fateful matches in the fourth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bang-xep-hang-fifa-doi-tuyen-viet-nam-bao-ve-duoc-vi-tri-truoc-indonesia-va-malaysia-185250909090514307.htm