What do you see from the failure of U23 Indonesia and the victory of U23 Vietnam?

After the U23 Indonesia team failed to qualify for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, the media in the archipelago expressed regret for the glorious past. "The team led by Gerald Vanenburg has lost hope of seeing the Indonesian youth team play in the continental arena, and has no chance to repeat the brilliant achievements of coach Shin Tae-yong's team," wrote Bola.

Remember just a year ago, after an excellent qualifying campaign, U23 Indonesia won the right to participate in the AFC U23 Championship for the first time (2024). There, coach Shin Tae-yong and his team continued to surprise by defeating U23 Australia and U23 Jordan in the group stage, overcoming U23 Korea in the quarter-finals and only stopping at the semi-finals after losing to U23 Uzbekistan.

After parting ways with the Korean coach, U23 Indonesia fell in the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers against their opponent U23 Korea, in a match where they held the ball 59% of the time.

Coach Shin Tae-yong's U23 Indonesia celebrates after defeating U23 Korea at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship.

Along with the massive naturalization strategy, with many players born and playing in the Netherlands of Indonesian origin, the President of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) Erick Thohir has carried out a revolution on the coaching bench by appointing Dutch strategists. He expects new achievements based on a modern, European-style controlling style of play.

But success has not come. And as Bola points out, both the national team led by Patrick Kluivert and the U23 team of Vanenburg suffer from the same disease: having a lot of control but not being able to convert their advantage into goals.

On September 8, Indonesia drew 0-0 with Lebanon despite having 81% possession. They did not even have a single shot on target. A day later, on September 9, U23 Indonesia dominated U23 Korea but lost 0-1, and did not have a single shot on target.

Coach Gerald Vanenburg's U23 Indonesia team fell to U23 Korea in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers.

Coach Vanenburg said that the defeat was due to his players' physical weakness. However, this made fans question whether it was right to maintain a controlling style of play when they knew that their players' physical strength could not meet the requirements? And is the European coach's style suitable for Asian players?

The Vietnamese national teams also faced these questions a while ago, then eliminated the problem by switching to coach Kim Sang-sik, a Korean. The playing style may not be unique, even considered boring, but the effectiveness is nothing to complain about.

Like the night of September 9 at Viet Tri Stadium, Coach Kim Sang-sik's decisiveness and his excellent tactical adjustments brought about the necessary victory. In a slow-paced match, but with just one acceleration and flexible coordination, U23 Vietnam successfully finished off their opponents with Thanh Nhan's goal.

Coach Kim Sang-sik helped U23 Vietnam to participate in the U23 Asian Cup for the 6th consecutive time.

We also had no trouble with physical strength, despite the qualifying round with 3 matches taking place in 7 short days, under mostly hot weather conditions in Phu Tho . The policy of rotation, making full use of existing personnel and encouraging every player to step up and shine of the Korean strategist helps the squad to always be fresh, while at the same time being rich in options and diversifying the supply of goals.

Looking back at the U23 Asian qualifiers, under the direction of Korean coaches, U23 Vietnam won all 8 matches, including 5 matches under coach Park Hang-seo and 3 matches under coach Kim Sang-sik. More impressively, U23 Vietnam scored 17 goals and kept a clean sheet in all 8 matches. In this Qualifier, it may be a coincidence, but only U23 Vietnam and U23 Korea were the two teams that won all 3 matches and did not concede any goals.

After all, there is no denying that Korean coaches are very good at producing results. And in footballing regions still considered to be low-lying areas like Southeast Asia, results are more important than style, or what is still called "beautiful football".