U23 Vietnam dominates the typical lineup of U23 Southeast Asia 2025

6 U23 Vietnam players were included in the typical U23 Southeast Asia team. Photo: Hai Ho .

On the afternoon of August 25, the ASEAN United FC homepage announced the typical lineup of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 tournament. Of which, U23 Vietnam has an absolute advantage with 6 honored faces including central defender Nguyen Hieu Minh, Pham Ly Duc, midfielders Nguyen Xuan Bac, Nguyen Van Truong, Nguyen Phi Hoang and striker Nguyen Dinh Bac.

The presence of many players in the best squad partly reflects the impressive performance of coach Kim Sang-sik and his team. In this year's tournament, U23 Vietnam won all matches and defeated host U23 Indonesia 1-0 in the final to lift the championship trophy for the third consecutive time. Among them, Nguyen Dinh Bac shone with important goals and became the best player of the tournament. The midfield and defense players showed disciplined and solid play.

Compared to U23 Vietnam, the remaining teams were clearly inferior. Although they reached the final, host U23 Indonesia only had 2 players participating: center back Kadek Arel and striker Jens Raven. U23 Philippines caused a surprise when they stopped in the semi-finals but contributed 3 faces: goalkeeper Nico Guimaraes, defender Noah Leddel and midfielder John Lucero.

Notably, the best lineup does not include any U23 Thailand players. This is rare because Thai youth football has been featured in regional honors for many years. However, if you look at the impressive performance of the Philippines, even better than Indonesia, this is easy to explain.

According to the plan, U23 Vietnam will gather again on August 29, right after the end of round 3 of V.League 2025/26, to prepare for the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers. In the announced list of players, Tran Thanh Trung - a Vietnamese-American player from Ninh Binh is a notable name. Coach Kim Sang-sik and the coaching staff closely monitored this player before adding his name to the list.