The 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship is witnessing a notable difference in the group stage. Specifically, Indonesia is in Group A with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, creating the only 4-team group in the tournament.
Jens Raven won the Golden Boot with 7 goals (Photo: Getty).
Meanwhile, groups B and C only have 3 teams. This leads to the teams in group A playing 3 group stage matches, one more than the teams in groups B and C. This difference is a topic of interest to many people.
It is worth mentioning that striker Jens Raven of U23 Indonesia became the top scorer of the tournament with 7 goals. However, most football fans in the region were not convinced.
Many opinions say that playing one more match will help the U23 Indonesia striker have more opportunities to score goals and this is unfair to the teams in other groups.
In the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 group stage, Jens Raven scored 6 goals against U23 Brunei, the team considered the weakest in the tournament. Meanwhile, in the remaining two matches against U23 Philippines and U23 Malaysia, the Dutch player was "silent".
Under the article honoring the winner of the Southeast Asian Football Federation (aseanutdfc) Golden Boot award, account axzlice commented: “Indonesia played one more match, the organizers should consider canceling Jens Raven’s 6 goals against Brunei (the team with the worst performance in the group stage) or stop calling this the Golden Boot race. What a shame.”
Jens Raven reacts after missing a chance in the final against U23 Vietnam (Photo: Getty).
According to the regulations of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament, the results of the match against the weakest team (Brunei) in the group of 4 teams will be canceled when considering the achievements between teams with the same score. However, there is no similar regulation in the race for the Golden Boot title.
Therefore, Jens Raven's 7 goals remain intact, despite controversy over the fairness of the tournament format.
Account irvan77 commented further: “It would be fairer if the race for the Golden Boot did not count the number of goals scored against U23 Brunei. At that time, the U23 Indonesia striker only had one goal left against U23 Thailand in the semi-final. Jens Raven won the title with only one goal, which is unfair to the other two groups.”
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/ngoi-sao-indonesia-bi-che-khong-xung-dang-gianh-vua-pha-luoi-u23-dong-nam-a-20250731034429795.htm
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