Vietnam U23 team reunites with Yemen, Singapore in 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers

(NLDO) - The draw results for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers on May 29 put U23 Vietnam in Group C with Yemen, Singapore and Bangladesh.

The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will feature 44 teams divided into 11 groups, playing a round-robin format. The 11 group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the finals. The qualifiers will take place from September 1 to 9, 2025 in the host countries. The finals will be held in January 2026 in Saudi Arabia.

In Group C, the opponents are quite familiar to U23 Vietnam, in which Yemen and Singapore were present in the group of U23 Vietnam in the 2024 U23 Asian Qualifiers, when the team won the group with 7 points after beating Guam 6-0, surpassing Yemen with a score of 1-0 and drawing Singapore 2-2.

According to the plan, in 2025, besides the 2026 U23 Asian Qualifiers, the Vietnam U23 team will also participate in two other important tournaments: the Southeast Asian U23 Championship and the 33rd SEA Games.

To prepare for this dense competition schedule, VFF and coach Kim Sang-sik have proactively built up their squad, with plans to call up many U22 players to the national team during FIFA Days from the second half of 2024 to present.

The team is also given the opportunity to participate in quality international tournaments, notably the U22 International Tournament in China in March 2025, with the participation of strong teams such as Uzbekistan, South Korea and host China.

According to the AFC rankings, the Vietnam U23 team is currently ranked 5th in Asia, behind only Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq and South Korea. This is a worthy result for the efforts and outstanding achievements of Vietnamese youth football in recent years, with 1 runner-up position (2018) and 2 consecutive quarter-finals (2022, 2024) in the last 5 Asian U23 tournaments.

Currently, the U23 Vietnam team is gathering with the national team during the FIFA Days in June 2025, continuing to practice tactics, perfecting the squad and getting ready to aim for important goals ahead.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/doi-tuyen-u23-viet-nam-tai-ngo-yemen-singapore-tai-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2026-196250529155640359.htm