Southeast Asian Football: Only U.23 Vietnam has a chance to continue to the U.23 Asian Cup Finals

After two matches in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, Southeast Asian representatives performed relatively impressively, but only U23 Vietnam has a chance to continue.

The standings in the groups of the U.23 Asian Qualifiers.

According to regional press reports, the Vietnam U23 team is in the most favorable position after two victories against Bangladesh U23 (2-0) and Singapore U23 (1-0). Currently leading Group C, Vietnam U23 only needs a draw against Yemen in their final match on September 9th at home to qualify for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship. With a well-balanced squad and high morale, Vietnam U23 is fully capable of achieving their goal.

Indonesia's U.23 team (left) doesn't have a very good chance of advancing (their chances are not high).

Photo: The-afc

Meanwhile, although Thailand U23 is leading Group F with 4 points (winning 6-0 against Mongolia and drawing 2-2 with Lebanon), they could lose their top spot if Lebanon wins convincingly against Mongolia, and Thailand fails to win convincingly against Malaysia in the final match. Because Mongolia is very weak and has already expended energy after their first two matches, Lebanon has the potential to score a barrage of goals to seize the top spot. If Lebanon wins convincingly against Mongolia to achieve their goal, Thailand can only hope to advance as one of the four best second-placed teams. Of course, Thailand must win against Malaysia; if they lose, Malaysia U23 will take second place.

The situation for the most anticipated team, the Indonesian U23 team, is not very promising, despite their recent all-out victory against Macau U23 5-0. This win is not enough to improve the situation for the team with many naturalized stars. Currently, Indonesia is temporarily second in Group J with 4 points, and in their final match they face the strong South Korean team, making victory very difficult. Nevertheless, Indonesian media are still encouraging coach Gerald Vanenburg's team, suggesting that if the naturalized players perform brilliantly, they could spring a surprise against South Korea on September 9th.

The remaining Southeast Asian representative, U.23 Myanmar, has no chance of advancing as they are currently in 3rd place in Group B with 1 point after 2 matches (losing 1-2 to U.23 Japan and drawing 0-0 with U.23 Kuwait).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-da-dong-nam-a-chi-co-u23-viet-nam-sang-cua-di-tiep-vck-u23-chau-a-185250907174130085.htm