Tickets within reach of U23 Vietnam

Vietnam U23 will open the 2026 AFC U23 qualifying campaign on September 3 with a match against Bangladesh U23.

And of course, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team are highly trusted to continue the traditional story to reach the continental youth tournament for the sixth time.

Position of U23 Vietnam

Vietnam U23 will open the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifying campaign on September 3 with a match against Bangladesh U23. The other two opponents for Mr. Kim's team are Singapore U23 and Yemen U23.

Going back in time, U23 Vietnam has participated in 5 of the 6 tournaments held, especially these 5 consecutive times in the most recent tournament. In the qualifying rounds for the 2016 and 2018 finals, U23 Vietnam won tickets as the second-placed team with the best results. Meanwhile, our young team has participated in the last 3 finals (2020, 2022 and 2024) with the top position in the qualifying round.

A preliminary look at past achievements shows that the position of U23 Vietnam in this youth playground of the continent is quite high. When the Vietnam Football Federation competes to host a group stage of the 2026 AFC U23 qualifiers, it shows that the goal is very clear for Mr. Kim and his team. That is to continue the traditional story of the past to participate for the sixth time in the 2026 AFC U23 Finals held next January in Saudi Arabia.

U23 Vietnam is expected to easily advance in the qualifying round.

In fact, U23 Vietnam's belief in winning the ticket does not necessarily depend on past glorious achievements. Football is not a sum, built on echoes of the past. The main thing is that U23 Vietnam is very carefully prepared, systematically based on a solid strategic plan.

U23 Vietnam has careful preparation

If we only count the beginning of 2025, U23 Vietnam has 2 very high-quality preparation periods. First, the team led by interim coach Dinh Hong Vinh had 3 friendly matches in China in March and then, the U23 Southeast Asia 2025 campaign for more than 1 month in July, led by coach Kim himself.

And counting last year, the current squad also had another very ideal test in China last September.

A series of international friendly matches or official matches with strong opponents such as U23 Korea, U23 China, U23 Malaysia, U23 Uzbekistan, U23 Indonesia helped raise U23 Vietnam to a new level. Van Khang, Thai Son, Trung Kien, Dinh Bac, Ly Duc... were also "received the national team's food" when they were called up to the national team, helping them not only mature in terms of expertise but also in terms of courage and experience in the field.

The achievement of winning the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship when defeating host U23 Indonesia right at the "fire pan" Gelora Bung Karno is the strongest evidence to affirm the solid values of expertise and fighting spirit of Mr. Kim's students.

U23 Vietnam is growing up.

Vietnam U23 is maturing, the opponents of Dinh Bac and his teammates in the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers are not outstanding. Of course, using the position of the national team on the rankings to compare strength is not accurate, but to some extent, it can also give viewers an idea of the correlation of forces between the national U23 teams.

In this aspect, Vietnam ranked 113th, Yemen ranked 156th, Singapore ranked 159th, and Bangladesh ranked 184th, which more or less shows the position of U23 Vietnam against 3 opponents of the same age in the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers. Among these 3 opponents, U23 Yemen is the most formidable.

In the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, Vietnam U23 also faced this opponent and won 1-0. That is a big psychological boost for Mr. Kim's army at the present time.

With the current position of having the home field advantage and especially the professional preparation in the journey of more than 1 year, as long as they play to their full potential and not be subjective, U23 Vietnam will continue the traditional story of the past of their "seniors" to participate in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship for the sixth time.

Source: https://znews.vn/ve-trong-tam-tay-u23-viet-nam-post1581852.html