U22 Vietnam hunts for SEA Games gold: The opportunity has come, will it blossom?

(Dan Tri) - The U22 Vietnam team has been highly regarded for dominating Southeast Asian football in recent years. It is time for them to prove themselves with a gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games.

The U22 Vietnam generation is about to "mature"

Before the 33rd SEA Games, U22 Vietnam had a quality match when participating in the Panda Cup 2025 in China. In that tournament, coach Dinh Hong Vinh and his team faced off against top opponents in the continent such as U22 China, U22 Korea and U22 Uzbekistan.

It should be emphasized that U22 Vietnam is the only team in Southeast Asia to participate in an overseas tournament before the SEA Games. Meanwhile, U22 Indonesia only played two friendly matches at home against U22 Mali (1 draw, 1 loss), while U22 Thailand only had one friendly match at home against U22 India (4-0 win). U22 Malaysia was even criticized for not playing before the SEA Games.

U22 Vietnam is highly appreciated for the quality of its squad. The team also has good preparation before the SEA Games (Photo: YCNews).

That shows the great determination of U22 Vietnam to win the 33rd SEA Games Gold Medal. In the most recent SEA Games, the young Vietnamese team stopped in the semi-finals against U22 Indonesia. More than ever, we want to reclaim the regional football throne.

The U22 Vietnam team at this point is really highly rated. We have won the U23 Southeast Asian Championship three times in a row. Quoc Viet was also present in all three of the team's championships. Therefore, in theory, U22 Vietnam can be considered the number one candidate for the SEA Games Gold Medal.

Most of the members of the current U22 Vietnam team have gone through the youth levels of U17, U19, U21, U22, U23 and even the national team (such as Dinh Bac, Thai Son, Van Khang, Thanh Nhan). This is not a group of players "hastily assembled" to serve the SEA Games goal, but has been trained through many international tournaments.

Remember, in July, after winning the Southeast Asian Championship with the U23 Vietnam team (the core of which is the current U22 team), coach Kim Sang Sik admitted: "I feel lucky to lead a generation of talented players with a good football foundation. For them, the most important thing is to build a united and cohesive team from the defense to the attack."

However, U22 Vietnam entered the SEA Games with certain challenges, from within the team itself. First is the absence of conductor Van Truong. Over the years, the midfielder of Hanoi FC has been considered the "heart" of the team with the ability to control the rhythm and compete well. Therefore, he is almost the default name in the starting lineup.

The absence of Van Truong is a big loss for U22 Vietnam (Photo: AFC).

Indonesian newspaper Super Ball also admitted that the absence of Van Truong is the biggest challenge for U22 Vietnam in this tournament. Coach Kim Sang Sik will have a headache solving the problem without Van Truong.

In the recent Panda Cup 2025 friendly tournament, coach Dinh Hong Vinh used Van Truong as a starter in three matches. The players chosen to play alongside this player were Xuan Bac (against U22 China), Quoc Cuong (against U22 Uzbekistan) and Thai Son (against U22 Korea).

The last time Van Truong did not start when U23 Vietnam met U23 Yemen in the U23 Asian qualifiers, coach Kim Sang Sik chose the central midfielder pair of Thai Son and Xuan Bac. In addition, the Korean coach also has a notable factor in this position: Vietnamese-American player Tran Thanh Trung (foreign name: Chung Nguyen Do), who used to play for the U21 Bulgaria team.

In addition, coach Kim Sang Sik also needs to improve the attack line. In the recent Panda Cup friendly, U22 Vietnam only scored 1 goal (in the match against U22 China). In which, that goal came from the opponent's mistake, not a good arrangement.

In the list of U22 Vietnam participating in SEA Games, Coach Kim Sang Sik has called up 6 strikers: Dinh Bac, Thanh Nhan, Quoc Viet, Ngoc My, Vi Hao and Le Phat. However, none of them have the ability to finish sharply. Instead, they are only strong when moving to the wing.

The lack of “number 9” is also a limitation of Vietnamese football at this time. In previous experiments, coach Kim Sang Sik used Viktor Le in the role of “false number 9”. In total, the total number of goals scored by Quoc Cuong, Van Khang, Thanh Nhan, Ngoc My, Quoc Viet, Viktor Le in V-League this season is only 11 goals. Among them, no player is in the list of top 15 best scorers in the tournament.

From a certain perspective, not having a main striker helps U22 Vietnam's playing style not depend on any factor, but finding a diverse, collective-based attack is not easy.

Identify the main opponents of U22 Vietnam

In terms of determination, U22 Indonesia is probably not inferior to U22 Vietnam at this point. After winning the historic gold medal at the 32nd SEA Games, the team from the archipelago wants to defend this title at all costs.

U22 Indonesia is the current SEA Games champion (Photo: Manh Quan).

In recent years, Indonesian youth football has achieved certain achievements. The Indonesian U17 team has twice won tickets to the U17 World Cup. The Indonesian U23 team finished 4th in the 2024 U23 Asian Cup and almost got a ticket to the Olympics.

The scary point of U22 Indonesia lies in the naturalized players. Coach Indra Sjafri has called up a series of players of Dutch origin such as Dion Markx, Ivar Jenner¸ Mauro Zijlstra, Rafael Struick, Jens Raven to the list to prepare for SEA Games 33.

Now, many naturalized players such as Rafael Struick and Jens Raven have returned to Indonesia to play, so they are no longer afraid that their European clubs will not release them. Like U22 Vietnam, U22 Indonesia has many national players such as Ivar Jenner, Rafael Struick, Dony Tri Pamungkas, Muhammad Ferarri, Kadek Arel, Hokky Caraka. Therefore, their level is not inferior to U22 Vietnam.

U22 Thailand is also a strong candidate. Over the years, they have never been underestimated at the SEA Games. Statistics show that in 15 SEA Games since 1993, the "War Elephants" have participated in 12 finals. In this year's tournament, U22 Thailand participates as the host, so of course they do not want to miss out on the Gold Medal.

A few days ago, U22 Thailand received bad news when English-born player Jude Soonsup-Bell (who used to play for Chelsea and Tottenham youth teams) could not attend the SEA Games because his home club Grimsby Town did not release him.

U22 Thailand determined to hunt for SEA Games gold medal at home (Photo: FAT).

However, in the U22 Thailand squad, fans still see many familiar faces such as Seksan Ratree, Yotsakorn Burapha, Kakana Khamyok... Home field advantage will help U22 Thailand a lot in the upcoming tournament.

Malaysia U22 entered the SEA Games with suspicion. They only had 6 players playing in the Malaysian national championship, the rest were playing in the youth team or lower divisions. The only naturalized player, Fergus Tierney, was not really highly rated in terms of expertise.

According to Transfermarkt, U22 Vietnam is the team with the highest squad value at 4 million euros, slightly above U22 Indonesia (3.98 million euros). That also partly reflects the quality of the squad in the hands of coach Kim Sang Sik.

The opportunity to hunt for gold has come to U22 Vietnam. Fans hope the team will "blossom" in Thailand.

Men's football matches at SEA Games 33 (Photo: AFF).

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/u22-viet-nam-san-vang-sea-games-thoi-co-da-toi-lieu-co-no-hoa-20251125213137817.htm