Outside is strong

Looking at the current squad, U22 Vietnam clearly possesses a dream defense because most of them have been used quite often in V-League in the past couple of seasons.

Even the two goalkeepers Trung Kien and Van Viet, as well as defenders like Hieu Minh, Nhat Minh, and Anh Quan, are still playing important roles in the club in the 2025/26 season.

W-U23 Vietnam vs U23 Philippines 6.jpg
The U22 Vietnam defense has experienced players like Ly Duc.

Not only famous, statistics in recent official tournaments also show that the defense that coach Kim Sang Sik owns is performing quite impressively, keeping clean sheets in 5/7 matches from U23 Southeast Asia to the U23 Asia qualifiers.

What has been shown makes many people believe that the defense is the most stable and reassuring area for coach Kim Sang Sik in the preparation for the 33rd SEA Games and the 2026 AFC U23 Championship.

But the inside still needs improvement

However, behind that certainty there are still many problems and reality shows that the defense of U22 Vietnam has not reached the necessary level of toughness or certainty to make fans feel secure.

In many matches, although no goals were conceded, the defense still revealed worrying errors - a typical example is the victory over Yemen in the U23 Asian qualifiers.

u23 vietnam 1.jpg
However, it still does not guarantee the highest level of peace of mind for coach Kim Sang Sik.

The West Asian team had to play with one less man, but many times in the second half, the U22 Vietnam defense was still put in dangerous situations, and only luck prevented them from conceding a goal.

What is more worth mentioning is that the opponents that U22 Vietnam has faced are not too strong, not better in terms of physique or experience. Therefore, when stepping into a big playground like the U23 Asian Cup, where there are the top teams in the continent, the current defense system will certainly have to face much greater pressure.

With good quality personnel, U22 Vietnam and coach Kim Sang Sik probably do not have to worry too much at the SEA Games, where the regional opponents are all familiar. But to go further at the U23 Asian Cup, coach Kim Sang Sik needs to quickly overcome problems in defensive organization - from the ability to cover, predict to the way to control space.

Fortunately, in the coming time, U22 Vietnam will have three more friendly matches with strong teams including China, Uzbekistan and South Korea (along with two defeats against Qatar in October) for the Korean strategist to complete his not-so-perfect defensive wall.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/u22-viet-nam-ngich-ly-noi-hang-phong-ngu-can-ong-kim-sang-sik-xu-ly-2459407.html