U.23 Laos is different from the past, it's hard for U.23 Vietnam... to win as much as they want.

The rapid progress of U.23 Laos in the past 2 years poses a difficult obstacle for U.23 Vietnam in the opening match of SEA Games 33.

U.23 Laos is no longer completely inferior to U.23 Vietnam

U.23 Vietnam will start their ambitions at SEA Games 33 with a match against U.23 Laos, taking place at 4:00 p.m. on December 3 at Rajamangala Stadium (Bangkok, Thailand).

In theory, this is an easy start for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team. U.23 Laos is the weakest team in Group B, with almost no chance of advancing when facing U.23 Vietnam and U.23 Malaysia.

The opening matches against Laos also often bring luck to Vietnam. In the AFF Cup 2018 and 2024, the Vietnamese team met Laos in the first match, then won the championship. At the SEA Games 30 (2019), U.23 Vietnam was also in the same group as U.23 Laos, then won consecutively to win the historic gold medal.

U.23 Laos (red shirt) is not willing to 'pave the way'

PHOTO: DONG NGUYEN KHANG

However, U.23 Laos is no longer an easy team to beat. The transformation of Laos football has taken place in the past 4 years, when Laos invested heavily in youth teams. The "inverted pyramid" model of using young people, that is, promoting a series of U.22, U.20 and U.17 players to the national team to nurture, is helping Lao youth football to flourish.

At the 32nd SEA Games (2023), U.23 Laos lost 0-2, but forced U.23 Vietnam to struggle to defend until the last minute. Before Quoc Viet scored the winning goal in extra time, U.23 Laos was even very close to equalizing, with dozens of shots bouncing towards Van Chuan's goal.

Most recently, at the 2025 U.23 Southeast Asian tournament, U.23 Vietnam won 3-0 against U.23 Laos, but that was a match where coach Kim Sang-sik's students, despite opening the score, were deadlocked against "concrete" Laos, having to rely on Hieu Minh's two brilliant aerial duels to close the match.

After the defeat in the U.23 Southeast Asian tournament, U.23 Laos continued to surprise many people when they held U.23 Indonesia to a 0-0 draw in the 2026 U.23 Asian qualifiers. The appearance of coach Ha Hyeok-jun is transforming Lao football at all levels, playing more tightly, disciplined and dedicatedly.

Lao football (red shirts) progresses at many levels

PHOTO: THUY AN

The naive, hasty image of Lao football now only appears in a few moments. Indeed, the national teams of the million elephants still have physical problems (often conceding goals in the last 20 minutes), but just being able to play like this is a great effort of coach Ha Hyeok-jun and his team.

A formidable challenge

The Laos team just had a resilient match against Vietnam in the fifth round of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, taking place on November 19.

Despite losing 0-2, this was one of the best matches Laos has ever had against Vietnam in its history. The team from the land of a million elephants caused countless difficulties for the strongest force of the Vietnamese team, especially in the second half.

And, 12 of the 23 Lao players who almost stopped the Vietnamese team that day are under 23 years old. They will appear at the 33rd SEA Games, with the mission of helping Lao football continue to rise.

Coach Ha Hyeok-jun has a promising young team, with Damoth Thongkhamsavath (2004) as the leader - a small, skillful midfielder who plays for Thanh Hoa Club. Leading the attack is "child prodigy" Peter Panthavong (2006), who has played 7 matches and scored 2 goals for the Laos team despite not yet being 20 years old.

Coach Kim Sang-sik and his students must concentrate in every match.

PHOTO: MINH TU

With the overflowing youth of all ages (in which the Laos U.19 team, who won the runner-up title of U.19 Southeast Asia 2022, played an important role), the Laos team drew with Thailand (1-1), the Philippines (1-1) and Indonesia (3-3) in just the last 2 months of 2024.

Not only does the current U.23 generation have potential, Laos is also motivated, as the country's U.17 generation played extremely well in the U.17 Asian qualifiers with 9 points after 4 matches, proudly ranking second in Group B.

U.17 Laos won U.17 Cambodia, U.17 Pakistan and U.17 Guam, only losing narrowly to U.17 Kyrgyzstan.

These victories are like small fires, waiting for a wind to ignite Lao youth football at SEA Games 33.

Although U.23 Vietnam is still stronger, it does not mean that coach Kim Sang-sik and his team can be complacent. Gone are the days when U.23 Laos always lost to strong teams. Opponents will do everything they can to cause surprises. Therefore, U.23 Vietnam needs to calculate carefully to have a clear path to continue.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/u23-lao-da-khac-xua-kho-co-chuyen-u23-viet-nam-muon-thang-bao-nhieu-cung-duoc-185251130124314624.htm