Rare: 4 Southeast Asian teams may be in the same group at the Asian tournament

Why didn't U.23 Vietnam meet Thailand and Indonesia?

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has officially announced the plan to organize the draw ceremony for the qualifying round of the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship. Accordingly, the draw ceremony will take place on the afternoon of May 29, at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. In this tournament, U.23 Vietnam is ranked in the first seed group.

In the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers, Southeast Asian football includes Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos, Timor Leste, Philippines and Brunei. Accordingly, U.23 Vietnam will certainly not be in the same group with teams with many ties in the same region such as U.23 Thailand and U.23 Indonesia. With U.23 Thailand, the team from the land of the golden pagoda is in the same seed group as U.23 Vietnam. Meanwhile, Indonesia is among the host countries organizing the group, similarly, Vietnam is also the host.

Hy hữu: 4 đội Đông Nam Á có thể chung bảng tại giải châu Á- Ảnh 1. — U.23 Vietnam is considered a strong candidate to win a ticket to the 2026 AFC U.23 Championship.

The 11 countries hosting the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers are: Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Qatar, Tajikistan, Thailand, UAE and Vietnam. According to the draw principle: the teams are divided into 4 seeding pots based on the scoring system approved by the AFC. In addition, the 11 countries hosting the group are put into a separate pot and drawn in advance to ensure that each host is in a different group. The host teams will be assigned to positions in the group corresponding to their seeding pot.

There is an interesting rare case that occurs, which is a group with the appearance of 4 teams from the Southeast Asian region. According to the drawing principle, such a group if appearing would have: Vietnam, Malaysia, Laos/Timor Leste/Philippines, Brunei; or Thailand, Malaysia, Laos/Timor Leste/Philippines, Brunei.

U.23 Vietnam has the advantage

The 2026 AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers will feature 44 teams, divided into 11 groups of four teams each. The matches will be played in a round-robin format at each host venue from September 1 to September 9. In the qualifiers, Vietnam U-23 will play at home and will be in the top seed group. The top seed group also includes Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Qatar, Thailand, Jordan, Tajikistan, and the UAE.

It can be seen that U.23 Vietnam is holding two very favorable factors. First, playing at home with the support of a large number of Vietnamese fans is a great mental advantage for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team. For youth teams, mentality always plays a very important role, greatly affecting the performance of players on the field. Second, being in the No. 1 seed group also increases the chance of U.23 Vietnam winning a ticket to the final of the 2026 AFC U.23 Championship. Because Khuat Van Khang and his teammates will certainly avoid the most formidable opponents in Asia because they are all in the No. 1 seed group, notably Japan, Korea, Uzbekistan, Iraq...

In preparation for the 2026 AFC U-23 qualifiers, the Vietnam U-23 team will continue to receive support from the VFF to gather and train at the same time as the national team's FIFA Days. The next FIFA Days in 2025 will take place in early June.

List of 4 seed groups (in order of ranking)

Group 1: Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Qatar, Thailand, Jordan, Tajikistan, UAE

Group 2: Indonesia, Kuwait, Iran, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Cambodia

Group 3: Myanmar, Oman, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, India, Lebanon, Laos, Timor Leste, Taiwan, Philippines, Hong Kong

Group 4: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Pakistan, Macau, Nepal, Brunei, Bhutan, Northern Mariana Islands

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hy-huu-4-doi-dong-nam-a-co-the-chung-bang-tai-giai-chau-a-185250506165733784.htm