U22 Vietnam hunts for SEA Games gold: The position of "king" of Southeast Asian football

(Dan Tri) - Today (December 3), the men's football event of the 33rd SEA Games will officially begin. U22 Vietnam has no other goal than to win the Gold Medal (HCV) to affirm its position in Southeast Asian football.

The status of Southeast Asian champions

Right before the 33rd SEA Games, there is a statistic about Vietnamese football that many people are interested in. Accordingly, this year, 7 teams including U17 women, U20 women, women's team, U17 men, U23 men and futsal men and women all won tickets to participate in the Asian Cup. In the past, there have never been so many successful Vietnamese teams.

Not to mention, the U23 Vietnam team (the core of which is the U22 team participating in the SEA Games) also excellently defeated U23 Indonesia to win the U23 Southeast Asian Championship. More impressively, it was the third consecutive time that U23 Vietnam won the championship in this tournament.

Vietnam U23 just won the Southeast Asian U23 Championship in July (Photo: VFF).

It is not too much to say that U23/U22 Vietnam is the "king" of Southeast Asian youth football. Therefore, there is no reason why we should not aim to win the 33rd SEA Games gold medal. This is also the title that we achieved in 2019 and 2021, before being interrupted when U22 Indonesia won the tournament in 2023 (during the period when Coach Troussier led).

It can be said that this is the year that Vietnamese football "blooms". The consecutive successes of the 7 teams mentioned above are like a dose of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that creates feelings of excitement, happiness, and strong motivation) that urges coach Kim Sang Sik and his team to not stop at this point. Basically, it is a good and necessary source of energy for U22 Vietnam before the big match.

Another special thing is that Coach Kim Sang Sik always shows his talent when participating in football tournaments in the Southeast Asian region. He is the first coach to win two consecutive AFF Cup and U23 Southeast Asian championships. If we consider the national team and U23 level separately, the Korean coach has won 13, drawn 1, and lost 1 against opponents from Southeast Asia.

Coach Kim Sang Sik only lost to Malaysia in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, but that was a match in which the opponent was accused by FIFA of using 7 naturalized players to cheat. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is considering a penalty for Malaysia. Most likely, they will be punished with a 0-3 loss to the Vietnamese team.

If that happens, Coach Kim Sang Sik will have an almost perfect winning record when facing Southeast Asian teams. Despite many people criticizing Coach Kim's playing style, it has always shown its effectiveness at the regional level.

In the hands of coach Kim Sang Sik is a squad consisting of many players who have played together from the youth teams such as U17, U19, U21, U22, U23 to the national team. People like Khuat Van Khang, Thai Son, Quoc Viet, Thanh Nhan or Dinh Bac have fought together in many tournaments. They will combine with others like Viktor Le, Hieu Minh, Ly Duc, Xuan Bac... to become a solid framework of U22 Vietnam.

Perhaps, the regrettable absence of U22 Vietnam is the position of Van Truong. In recent years, the player of Hanoi Club has always played the role of the team's rhythm master. Coach Kim Sang Sik has not found an easy replacement.

Coach Kim Sang Sik has a great relationship with Southeast Asian football (Photo: VFF).

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). Super Ball (Indonesia) even emphasized that Van Truong's absence would bring a big challenge to U22 Vietnam.

Coach Kim Sang Sik will have to find a way to “fill the void” left by Van Truong. If he can solve that problem, the “Golden Star Warriors” can go deep in the 33rd SEA Games.

Basically, U22 Vietnam is still considered a "bogeyman" to many opponents in the tournament. Malaysian football expert, Datuk Jamil Nasir, expressed pessimism about the team's ability to continue when being in the same group with U22 Vietnam. He said: "At the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia, U22 Malaysia did not even get past the group stage. I think the team will repeat this scenario at the 33rd SEA Games.

I am very worried about U22 Malaysia when facing U22 Vietnam. They are a very high-quality team, and U22 Malaysia is often not highly rated for its strength due to disappointing performances in recent tournaments."

That comment showed that the opponents really appreciated U22 Vietnam. However, the important thing for coach Kim Sang Sik and his team is to stay cautious and confident in each match.

Formidable challengers of U22 Vietnam

In July, the Indonesian press and fans were extremely angry when they saw their team lose the Southeast Asian U23 championship to U23 Vietnam right on their home field. After that match, Gerald Vannenburg was fired from the "hot seat". The Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) appointed a familiar face, coach Indra Sjafri, who helped U22 Indonesia win the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia.

U22 Indonesia called up many naturalized players in the hope of defending the SEA Games gold medal (Photo: Bola).

Coach Indra Sjafri has a lot of experience working with Indonesian youth, so he understands the players very well. Not only that, PSSI also showed their determination to win gold medals by calling up 4 players who play in Europe such as Mauro Zijlstra (Volendam), Ivar Jenner (Utrecht), Dion Markx (TOP Oss), Maselino Ferdinan (Trecin) to attend the SEA Games.

In addition, the U22 Indonesia squad also has many naturalized players who have returned to play domestically such as Rafael Struick, Jens Raven and national players such as Dony Tri Pamungkas, Muhammad Ferarri, Kadek Arel, Toni Firmansyah, Hokky Caraka.

It can be said that these are the best players in the U22 group that Indonesian football can summon. That shows the great determination of Garuda (Indonesia's nickname) to defend the SEA Games gold medal.

Striker Hokky Caraka confidently declared: “We think about the gold medal every day. That is the motivation for the whole team. We are improving every day and clearly understand our limitations to find ways to overcome them.”

Of course, we cannot ignore the host U22 Thailand. At this time, the Thai team is still number one in Southeast Asia on the FIFA rankings (95th in the world ). The last time U22 Thailand won the SEA Games was in 2017. Since then, they have continuously witnessed the tournament's gold medal falling into the hands of U22 Vietnam (2 times) and U22 Indonesia (1 time).

Even U22 Thailand was eliminated from the group stage at the 30th SEA Games. In the two recent tournaments, the "War Elephants" both reached the final but lost to U22 Vietnam and U22 Indonesia.

That said, U22 Thailand is very "thirsty" for the SEA Games gold medal. Playing at home further motivates this team to strive for the highest position in this year's tournament. The Football Association of Thailand (FAT) has carefully prepared the U22 team to serve the goal of hunting for gold. They have called up to 50 people and created conditions for U22 Thailand to go on training and play many friendly matches in the past time.

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

The biggest loss for U22 Thailand before the tournament is not being able to call up Thai-born player Jude Soonsup-Bell, who used to play for Chelsea and Tottenham youth teams. The reason is that Grimsby Town (England) refused to release him. However, with faces that have played together for many years in youth tournaments, U22 Thailand owns a cohesive team. They have many outstanding factors such as Sarawat Phosaman, Chanapach Buaphan, Seksan Ratree, Yotsakorn Burapha.

Coach Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul shared: “We are ready for the SEA Games. The whole team coordinates and works closely together and ensures the best physical condition. Our goal is to win the SEA Games gold medal. The whole team will strive to achieve that.”

Meanwhile, the main opponent of U22 Vietnam in Group B, U22 Malaysia, did not have the best preparation. Before the tournament, U22 Malaysia faced countless difficulties. They were almost abandoned by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM). The reason was because FAM was busy pursuing the appeal with FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), so they could not pay attention to U22 Malaysia.

Therefore, Coach Nafuzi's team did not have any friendly matches before the SEA Games. Not only that, they also gathered late and did not have good training conditions. The whole team only gathered on November 25 and was expected to go to Thailand on December 5. Not to mention the flooding situation in Thailand that forced U22 Malaysia to constantly change their plans.

Notably, Coach Nafuzi could not call up 7 important players (at least for the match against U22 Laos) because clubs such as Selangor, Sabah, Penang and Terengganu refused to release their players. In that situation, Coach Nafuzi had to "call for help".

The coach of U22 Malaysia shared: “Up to this point, we have not received approval to release players from Sabah, Penang and Terengganu clubs. At the same time, we are also waiting to see the current situation of Selangor.

Previously, two players, Aliff Izwan and Muhammad Abu Khalil, remained in Selangor. On the morning of December 2, the club called two more players back to participate in the Southeast Asian C1 Cup. Thus, a total of 7 players from the whole team were not present in today's training session."

The journey ahead will not be easy for U22 Vietnam. However, it is an opportunity for Khuat Van Khang and his teammates to demonstrate their mettle that has been "hardened" over the years. It is time for U22 Vietnam to prove their position as the "king" of Southeast Asian football.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/u22-viet-nam-san-vang-sea-games-vi-the-nha-vua-bong-da-dong-nam-a-20251203004004954.htm