VFF President wants U.23 Vietnam to reach the SEA Games final: Can we dream of a gold medal?

The championship of the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament helped the morale of the U.23 Vietnam team increase. In addition, through the recent tournament, Vietnamese football has a general view of its opponents before the 33rd SEA Games.

Vietnam U.23 football team is not inferior to neighboring football teams

In recent years, the representatives of Vietnamese football are most concerned about the naturalized players of some teams in Southeast Asia. Between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the Vietnamese team lost 3 matches to the Indonesian team (2 losses in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia, 1 loss in the group stage of the 2023 Asian Cup). Last June, the Vietnamese team lost 0-4 to Malaysia in the qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup. Indonesia and Malaysia used many naturalized players of European and South American origin in the above matches.

However, the representatives of the two football backgrounds of Indonesia and Malaysia, when they rarely used naturalized players at the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament (each team only had 1 player of European origin), they showed that they were not too strong. In particular, U.23 Indonesia was defeated by U.23 Vietnam in the final match.

That proves that, without the massive addition of players from Europe and South America, the internal strength of the above football countries is no better than the strength of Vietnamese players.

The other notable rival of Vietnamese football in Southeast Asia, Thailand, currently does not have any outstanding domestic players, compared to Vietnamese players. Thailand U.23 was not successful at the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament. From now until the SEA Games, if there are no more naturalized players, Thai football will hardly have any special additions compared to the squad participating in the recent Southeast Asian U.23 tournament. The players in the age group participating in the SEA Games who are playing for the Thai national team are also not very outstanding.

Coach Kim Sang-sik: 'U.23 Vietnam won because they knew how to turn pressure into motivation'

U.23 Vietnam can be even stronger

Former coach of the Vietnam U.23 team, Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan commented: "After the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament, opponents will definitely study the Vietnam U.23 team. However, the Vietnam U.23 team itself can be even stronger in the future. We still have some faces in our age group, who can be added to the 33rd SEA Games campaign. These include Hong Phuc, Duc Phu, Nam Hai, Duc Viet, Manh Hung, Xuan Tien...".

U.23 Vietnam can be stronger at SEA Games 33

Photo: Dong Nguyen Khang

In addition to being able to add to the squad, U.23 Vietnam can also make significant progress in terms of experience, courage and confidence, after we won the U.23 Southeast Asian Championship. Once the young players have more confidence in the international arena, they will become a very difficult team to defeat, each person has the ability to promote their strongest points.

Not only that, if the opponents can study U.23 Vietnam after the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament, then we will also know more information, know more about the playing style of teams like U.23 Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines, to study and find countermeasures to defeat them in the next few months.

The prospect of success for the U.23 Vietnam team at the 33rd SEA Games in December is therefore not small. The important thing is that the whole team has the right development trajectory from now until the SEA Games. Recently, VFF President Tran Quoc Tuan shared that VFF has prepared carefully from now on with the goal of the U.23 Vietnam team reaching the final of the 33rd SEA Games. But of course, the gold medal is what everyone is looking forward to.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chu-tich-vff-muon-u23-viet-nam-vao-chung-ket-sea-games-mo-hcv-duoc-khong-185250801140308163.htm