The gold medal in men's football at SEA Games 33 closed a successful year for Vietnamese football, with the strong mark of coach Kim Sang-sik.
The Korean strategist has excellently completed his tasks at both the Vietnamese national team and the U22/U23 team. With the Vietnamese national team, he helped the team win the ASEAN Cup 2024. Statistics show that in 15 coaching matches, he helped the team have 12 wins, 1 draw and only 2 losses.
At the U22/U23 level, he achieved a near-perfect winning rate in direct coaching matches (not counting matches for assistants to lead). He helped U23 Vietnam win the 2025 U23 Southeast Asian Championship, passing the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers before winning the gold medal in men's football at SEA Games 33.
With those successes, Mr. Kim Sang-sik became one of the most successful coaches of Vietnamese football. His next challenge is the final round of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, which will take place in Saudi Arabia from January 6 to 24.
In this playground, U23 Vietnam once reached the final in 2018, but then lost to U23 Uzbekistan. In the two most recent tournaments, U23 Vietnam both stopped in the quarterfinals. After the resounding success in 2025, as well as the V.League temporary suspension to have the best force, it is clear that the expectations of fans for U23 Vietnam in this year's tournament are very high.
The challenge for U23 Vietnam is very big when the team is in the same group as U23 Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kyrgyzstan. Among these, U23 Saudi Arabia is the host team, once championed in 2022. The West Asian team also won against U23 Vietnam in the quarter-finals of the tournament in 2022.
Jordan U23 has also participated in the No. 1 continental tournament 7 times, ranking 3rd in 2013. With the success of Jordanian football in recent times, from finishing second at the 2023 Asian Cup, winning tickets to the 2026 World Cup, clearly, the strength of Jordanian football is increasing day by day.
The remaining opponent, U23 Kyrgyzstan, although only participating in the number 1 continental tournament for the first time. But with being ranked above even the very strong opponent U23 Uzbekistan in the qualifying round, it is clear that this Central Asian team cannot be underestimated.
To prepare for the Asian tournament, U23 Vietnam played many friendly matches in Qatar, China, but the results were not really satisfactory. The team lost to U23 Qatar 2 matches in September 2025; lost to U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Korea at the Panda Cup in China. Most recently, Khuat Van Khang and his teammates lost to U23 Syria 1-2.
These things show that the challenges for Mr. Kim Sang-sik and his students are very large. The team will have to make top efforts, find more new moves, maintain fitness and form at the best level to have a chance to pass the group stage.
The team's biggest hope is none other than Mr. Kim Sang-sik. Fans hope he will continue to show "magic" in the continental arena, from forming the squad, preparing set pieces, substitutions and adjusting tactics reasonably... to help U23 Vietnam create surprises.
