Indonesian media reaction after loss to U23 Vietnam

Indonesian press is not satisfied after the defeat of the national U23 team against U23 Vietnam in the final of the U23 Southeast Asian tournament on the evening of July 29.

The only goal helped U23 Vietnam win the Southeast Asian Championship. On the evening of July 29, the U23 Vietnam team defeated Indonesia 1-0 in the final of the 2025 Southeast Asian Championship held at Bung Karno Stadium.

Nguyen Cong Phuong shined with the only goal to help U23 Vietnam win the U23 Southeast Asian Championship. This victory made U23 Indonesia even more bitter as they had home field advantage in the final match.

After the match, Indonesian media was angry and criticized the tactics of coach Kim Sang-sik and his team. CNN Indonesia pointed out the situation when coach Kim stood in the way of Robi Darwis, preventing the player from making a throw-in straight into the U23 Vietnam penalty area.

In addition, CNN Indonesia also noticed a long line of water bottles appearing on the sidelines, right when the Indonesian U23 players performed a throw-in. This newspaper believes that the home team was not well prepared to react and chose to throw the bottles back to the goalkeeper for safety.

Meanwhile, Bola newspaper quoted a series of critical comments from domestic fans. A typical and well-received comment read: "U23 Vietnam plays smartly but dives too much. The referee also did not complete his task well."

Bola commented that the final match between the two teams was full of controversial situations. At the same time, this newspaper also emphasized that U23 Indonesia should have had a better result after their efforts throughout the 90 minutes.

Coach Kim's U23 Vietnam team had a successful tournament with an all-win record. This is the third consecutive time Vietnam has won the Southeast Asian U23 tournament.

Source: https://znews.vn/phan-ung-cua-truyen-thong-indonesia-sau-tran-thua-truoc-u23-viet-nam-post1572635.html