The most successful team in Southeast Asia in the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in the Asian region, so far, is Malaysia.
Coach Kim Pan-gon's team (from South Korea) is currently leading Group D after two matches, with 6 points. They are the only Southeast Asian team to top their qualifying group.
Of course, Malaysia is fortunate to be in a very easy group, alongside Taiwan, Kyrgyzstan, and Oman. They also haven't yet faced the theoretically strongest of those three opponents, which is Oman. However, Malaysia's team composition is different from before.
If you look closely, the "vertical axis" (goalkeeper – center back – central midfielder – striker) in the current Malaysian national team lineup consists of very tall, strong players who are good at tackling.
They often use center-backs Dion Cools (1.85 m) and Junior Eldstal (1.91 m). Their names sound very "Western," but they were actually born in Malaysia. Malaysia's central midfielder is Syamer Kutty Abba (1.86 m), and the striker is Romel Morales (1.87 m, who is a naturalized player from Colombia).
Malaysia (in yellow) places great importance on physical fitness.
Similarly, Indonesia's squad, composed entirely of European-born players, is naturally exceptionally tall, especially those playing vertically. Perhaps there's no need to elaborate further on the physique of Indonesian players, as this has been discussed extensively recently. Elkan Baggott, Jordi Amat, Jay Idzes (center backs), Ivar Jenner, Thom Haye (central midfielders), and Rafael Struick (striker) are all over 1.84 meters tall.
Even the Thai national team, which doesn't use many naturalized players, possesses players with excellent physiques in the aforementioned positions.
The Thai national team at the 2023 Asian Cup uses Saranon Anuin (1.87 m) as their starting goalkeeper, and center-backs Pansa Hemviboon (1.90 m) and Elis Dolah (1.96 m) as their central defenders. The central midfielder for the Thai team is Weerathep Pomphan (1.81 m), and the striker is Supachai Chaided (1.83 m).
They are all on the 23-player Thai squad preparing for the matches against South Korea on March 21st and 26th. This means that Thailand, and Southeast Asian teams in general, place great emphasis on physical attributes, a factor that greatly influences aerial ability and tackling skills.
Thailand's midfielders are also very muscular.
Only the Vietnamese national team doesn't follow this trend. Our central midfielders and even our forwards are quite small. Perhaps the team's main playing style is ball control, emphasizing technical skill.
This is a sensible playing style, adopted by many strong teams around the world . However, to gain possession and control the ball, we must first compete well to win it. This is where the Vietnamese team lagged behind Indonesia in the group stage match of the 2023 Asian Cup, before we lost 0-1.
The Vietnamese team once lost to Indonesia due to their inferiority in one-on-one challenges.
In fact, Vietnamese football still has many players with good physiques, who are good at one-on-one challenges and aerial duels, in addition to having decent technique. For example, in the defense, we have Huynh Tan Sinh (1.85 m) who can play center back better than Phan Tuan Tai (1.72 m), and Ho Tan Tai (1.80 m) who is better at aerial duels than Vu Van Thanh and Pham Xuan Manh (who are only slightly taller than 1.70 m).
Furthermore, it is hoped that when Tien Linh and Dinh Bac (both 1.80 m tall) return, the team will have better forwards in both aerial ability and goal-scoring prowess before facing Indonesia (Tien Linh did not participate in the 2023 Asian Cup, and Dinh Bac was injured before the match against the Indonesian team).
Having taller players in the squad automatically gives the team more attacking options, instead of being at a disadvantage even before the match starts. This is also a general trend that even neighboring teams are trying to adapt to!
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