Coach Kim Sang Sik temporarily leaves the Vietnamese team to focus all his efforts on the SEA Games.

(Dan Tri) - After finishing his duties with the Vietnam national team in 2025, Coach Kim Sang Sik will focus on the Vietnam U22 team, ready to enter two important campaigns: SEA Games 33 and U23 Asia 2026.

On the afternoon of November 20, the members of the Vietnamese national team returned home from Laos, concluding their away trip to the land of a million elephants, within the framework of the final qualifying round of the 2027 Asian Cup. Before that, coach Kim Sang Sik and his team won 2-0 against host Laos, with goals from Xuan Son and Tuan Hai.

With three points won, the Vietnamese team, although not awarded any additional points, still moved up one rank, to 110th in the world in the latest update of the World Football Federation (FIFA).

Xuan Son and his teammates returned home on the afternoon of November 20 (Photo: VFF).

These are very encouraging results for the Vietnamese team, concluding the 2025 missions with many successes.

After returning home, the players returned to their clubs to prepare for the 1/8 round of the National Cup, while Coach Kim Sang Sik joined the U22 Vietnam team. According to the plan, the Vietnam team will not gather again until the end of March 2026 to prepare for the final match of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers against Malaysia. Thus, Coach Kim Sang Sik temporarily said goodbye to the Vietnam team for 4 months.

With U22 Vietnam, the Korean strategist and his students continued to train in Vung Tau to prepare for the 33rd SEA Games. Before that, U22 Vietnam participated in the international friendly tournament Panda Cup 2025 in China, with the results of winning the host U22 China 1-0, losing to U22 Uzbekistan 0-1, losing to U22 Korea 0-1.

The Vietnam national team will gather again in March next year (Photo: VFF).

U22 Vietnam is expected to arrive in Thailand on December 2 to officially enter the SEA Games 33 campaign. In this tournament, U22 Vietnam will play its opening match against U22 Laos (December 4), then meet U22 Malaysia (December 11).

Right after the 33rd SEA Games, U22 Vietnam will participate in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship finals (taking place in January 2026). Coach Kim Sang Sik's team is in Group A with host Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kyrgyzstan.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/hlv-kim-sang-sik-tam-chia-tay-tuyen-viet-nam-don-toan-luc-cho-sea-games-20251120165921120.htm