Malaysia names 'super squad' U.23 for Southeast Asian tournament, Indonesia worried

According to CNN Indonesia, the U.23 Malaysia team is conducting a program called Elite Games, from which the best players are selected for the 'super team' to participate in the Southeast Asian tournament, along with the Asian qualifiers and the 33rd SEA Games.

Malaysia gathers all the best U.23 players for selection

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) plans to call up 30 players to prepare for the upcoming U.23 Southeast Asian tournament to be held in Indonesia in mid-July. They currently have 7 players who have played for the national team, including 2 naturalized players, Gabriel Palmero and Fergus Tierney.

Coach Kim Sang-sik will lead the U.23 Vietnam team to defend the Southeast Asian championship, promising to face many challenges against opponents Indonesia and Malaysia.

Photo: Ngoc Linh

The rest are also on the list of 23 players of the Malaysian team in the match against the Vietnamese team (winning 4-0 in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers on June 10), such as Arif Aiman ​​Hanapi, Nooa Laine, Harith Haiqal Adam Afkar, or Ubaidullah Shamsul Fazili and Haqimi Azim Rosli.

These players will be combined with players through the Elite Games selection program, taking place from June 23 to June 25, including practice matches to select the best players.

Accordingly, FAM will gather all the best players in the U.23 group and those of the age that will be eligible (U.22) to participate in the 33rd SEA Games at the end of this year in Thailand. These players will be divided into many teams and will compete with each other.

The coaching staff of the U.23 Malaysia team, including head coach Nafuzi Zain and two Japanese assistants, Yoshiro Moriyama and Kosuke Takeya, along with English coach Jose Baxter and coach Shukor Adan (Malaysia), will be the ones to determine the names eligible to join the list of 30 players to prepare for training from July 1.

At the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament, U.23 Malaysia is in Group A with the host team Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and Brunei. Therefore, the news that "Harimau Muda" (nickname of the U.23 Malaysia team) plans to select a "super team" for the tournament has made the press in the archipelago country worried about the home team.

Indonesia U.22 team won the gold medal in men's football at the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023

Photo: Ha Phuong

"U.23 Malaysia will bring an extremely strong squad to the Southeast Asian tournament. They will be a formidable opponent for coach Gerald Vanenburg and his team in the U.23 Indonesia team. Not only that, other strong opponents in the region such as the U.23 Thailand team or the U.23 Vietnam team, which has won the U.23 Southeast Asian championship twice, will also have to be extremely cautious," CNN Indonesia expressed.

To prepare for the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament as host, U.23 Indonesia also called up 30 players, including 8 "superstars" who have played for the national team and 1 naturalized player, striker Jens Raven (19 years old, from the Dutch club Dordrecht). Meanwhile, they still have 5 other naturalized players in the U.22/U.23 age group, but they are not called up because they are only focusing on playing for the national team in the fourth qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.

U.23 Indonesia has gathered and trained since June 20, to prepare for the 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 tournament held at home in Jakarta and Bekasi from July 15 to July 29.

At the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament, Indonesia won the championship in 2019, while the U.23 Vietnam team won twice (the most) in the last two tournaments in 2022 and 2023. U.23 Thailand also won once in 2005.

The 2025 Southeast Asian U.23 Tournament with 10 participating teams is divided into 3 groups as applied at the 33rd SEA Games in Thailand.

The host U.23 Indonesia team is in Group A with 4 teams, including the remaining teams such as Malaysia, Philippines and Brunei. The U.23 Vietnam team is in Group B with only 3 teams, with the remaining 2 teams being Cambodia and Laos. The U.23 Thailand team is in Group C as well, with Myanmar and Timor Leste. The teams compete in a round robin to calculate points, the 3 group winners and 1 second-place team with the best record will advance to the semi-finals.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/malaysia-len-sieu-doi-hinh-u23-cho-giai-dong-nam-a-indonesia-lo-lang-185250623175940704.htm