U23 Vietnam goes to Indonesia to conquer the championship cup

U23 Việt Nam sang Indonesia để chinh phục cúp vô địch - Ảnh 1. — Midfielder Khuat Van Khang at Tan Son Nhat airport - Photo: NK

The Vietnam U23 team has had 3 weeks of training in Ba Ria - Vung Tau to prepare for the tournament. The team had two closed friendly matches with all wins against Taiwan U23 to test personnel as well as perfect tactics.

After resting in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday (July 13), Coach Kim Sang Sik and his team arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport at 8am on July 14 to travel to Indonesia. The flight departed at 9:55am, and is expected to bring the U23 Vietnam team to Jakarta at 1pm the same day.

After settling in Jakarta, the U23 Vietnam team is scheduled to have a training session on the afternoon of July 14 to prepare for the tournament. In the group stage, the U23 Vietnam team is in Group B and will face Laos (July 19) and Cambodia (July 22).

Having won two consecutive seasons in 2022 and 2023, the U23 Vietnam team continues to receive great expectations from fans in their journey to defend the throne.

However, Mr. Kim Sang Sik affirmed that the whole team will approach the tournament with a high spirit of concentration and not be subjective.

U23 Việt Nam - Ảnh 2. — Russian-Vietnamese player Viktor Le

"Winning consecutive championships is something to be proud of, but we don't want to put too much pressure on the players. Football is a team sport , I always promote team spirit and discipline in competition," he said.

I always encourage players to see this tournament as an opportunity to grow and develop, rather than just aiming for results. Results, in my opinion, will be a natural consequence of that process."

He said this tournament is also an opportunity for the coaching staff to test and evaluate the team's strength towards the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers in September and the 33rd SEA Games at the end of the year.

"The 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship is an opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate the abilities of each player and find combinations for tactical cohesion. For young players, this is also a valuable opportunity to accumulate international competition experience," the Korean coach added.

The 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship will take place from July 15 to 29 in Indonesia with the participation of 10 teams, divided into 3 groups. The teams will compete in a round-robin to calculate points, selecting the 3 group winners and 1 second-place team with the best results to enter the semi-finals.