Indonesian newspapers are cautious when talking about U22 Vietnam at SEA Games 33.

Indonesian newspapers highly appreciate U22 Vietnam at SEA Games 33, a tournament in which coach Kim Sang-sik and his team are determined to win the Gold Medal.

Indonesia U22 is the current champion of the SEA Games men's football when they defeated Thailand in the final match held 2 years ago. And in the tournament taking place in December 2025, the team from the archipelago country aims to defend the title.

However, Indonesian media is quite worried about the strong rise of U22 Vietnam in recent times.

U22 Vietnam confidently aims for the SEA Games 33 gold medal (Photo: VFF).

Writing about this, CNN Indonesia emphasized: “Coach Kim Sang-sik will be attending the SEA Games for the first time. This 48-year-old Korean coach is cherishing the ambition to repeat the achievements of his predecessor, Coach Park Hang-seo, who helped Vietnamese football quench its thirst for gold medals in men's football at the SEA Games by winning the title twice with the U23 Vietnam team in 2019 and 2021.”

In the most recent SEA Games, Indonesia defeated U23 Vietnam in the semi-finals and then defeated Thailand to win the championship.

“Indonesia is the current SEA Games champion in men's football, after coach Indra Sjafri helped end a 32-year gold medal drought.

This coach has just returned to seek opportunities to protect his achievements. Indonesian football also focuses heavily on the upcoming SEA Games to regain confidence after the shock failure in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. However, competitors such as U22 Vietnam or the host team Thailand are all extremely formidable and have brought their strongest squads and best coaches to the tournament," CNN Indonesia said.

Also according to the leading newspaper of the archipelago country, U22 Vietnam is currently very determined to win back the gold medal and the preparation plan for this tournament is also going very smoothly.

U22 Vietnam is ready for SEA Games 33 (Photo: VFF).

In this tournament, the U22 Vietnam squad is still mainly the players who just won the U23 Southeast Asian Championship with U23 Vietnam.

As for Thailand, this team will also have very high quality additions and the most prominent of which is the English player - Jude Soonsup-Bell. Meanwhile, coach Indra Sjafri has been given the green light by Indonesia to call up as many naturalized players of Dutch origin who are still of age to compete at the 33rd SEA Games as Adrian Wibowo, Mauro Zijlstra or Ivar Jenner.

From now until the 33rd SEA Games, U22 Vietnam will have two consecutive training sessions. The fourth training session in 2025 will take place from November 10 to 19, focusing on participating in the 2025 Panda Cup International Friendly Tournament in China. The tournament will bring together many strong teams in the region such as U22 China, U22 Uzbekistan and U22 Korea.

Immediately after that, U22 Vietnam will enter the fifth training session from November 23 to December 19. This is considered an important rehearsal period before the 33rd SEA Games. The team is expected to train in Vung Tau city from November 23 to 29, then move to Ho Chi Minh City before leaving for Thailand on December 2 to attend the 2025 Southeast Asian Games .

The men's football event of the 33rd SEA Games takes place from December 3 to December 18. Vietnam U22 is in Group B with Malaysia and Laos. Group A includes host Thailand U22 along with Cambodia and Timor Leste. Group C has 4 teams, including defending champions Indonesia U22, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore.

The teams compete in a round-robin format, with the top three teams in each group and the best second-place team advancing to the semi-finals.

Source: https://baoxaydung.vn/bao-indonesia-e-de-khi-noi-ve-u22-viet-nam-o-sea-games-33-19225110312193198.htm