U.23 Vietnam leaves China and Thailand far behind in prestigious Asian playground

With the 6th consecutive participation in the U.23 Asian tournament, the U.23 Vietnam team is ranked above Iran and even far ahead of China, Thailand, and Indonesia in the achievement table at this playground.

Vietnam U.23 team had a convincing victory over Yemen U.23

Photo: Minh Tu

Special milestone of Vietnam U.23 team

The Vietnam U.23 team has once again entered the final round of the U.23 Asian Cup after 3 wins against U.23 Bangladesh, U.23 Singapore and U.23 Yemen to take the top spot in Group C with 9 absolute points.

This is the 6th consecutive time Vietnam has participated in the highest youth tournament of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after 7 times the AFC U-23 tournament was held. Interestingly, Vietnam's achievements in the previous 5 times were very good, among the top in the continent.

2018 went down in history when coach Park Hang-seo and his team brought Vietnamese football to its first final in an official continental tournament, where Quang Hai scored but finished runner-up after losing 1-2 to Uzbekistan.

Vietnam U.23 team completes goal of participating in 2026 AFC U.23 Championship Finals

Photo: Minh Tu

The Vietnam U23 team is the first and only team in Southeast Asia to reach this milestone. The Indonesia U23 team at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship is eager to catch up but only ranked 4th.

In the last two tournaments in the 2022 and 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals, the Vietnam U23 team had a very stable performance, reaching the quarter-finals. A remarkable achievement helped us to be seeded No. 2 in the 2024 tournament, compared to seed No. 3 in 2022, limiting the risk of falling into the group of death.

Affirmation of young inner strength

In addition, the Vietnam U.23 team also participated in the group stage of the U.23 Asian Cup twice in 2016 and 2020. In addition to passing the qualifying round this time, Vietnam will be among the few in Asia to have participated in the most recent U.23 Asian Cups 6 times in a row.

With this achievement, Vietnam is the only representative in the top 10 in terms of achievements in the U.23 Asian arena (based on 3 points for 1 win, 1 point for 1 draw) with 19 points, right after UAE (9th place, 20 points).

The U.23 Vietnam strikers have all scored under Mr. Kim.

Photo: Minh Tu

While waiting for the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship to take place, we are temporarily ranked above the big names Iran, Syria (16 points), DPRK (13 points) and far ahead of Thailand (13 points), Indonesia (7 points), and China with only 6 points.

In Saudi Arabia in January 2026, if coach Kim Sang-sik and his team continue to maintain or surpass the milestone of continuously reaching the quarter-finals of the last two tournaments, the U.23 Vietnam team will significantly improve their score.

In terms of achievements, the U.23 Vietnam team, runner-up in 2018, is only behind the big five: Japan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Iraq. A remarkable achievement given our weak economic and physical conditions.

The above parameters can be seen as an affirmation of the youth training strength of Vietnamese football, in the context of many countries in the region and continent rushing to "race" with the policy of naturalization at all costs.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/u23-viet-nam-bo-xa-trung-quoc-va-thai-lan-tai-san-choi-danh-gia-chau-a-185250910112950738.htm